"I personally felt I let the team down in the Ashes" - Ben Stokes
England's star all-rounder Ben Stokes criticised his own performance during England's Ashes series defeat Down Under recently. The star cricketer thought his contributions, vital to the tourists' chances, had been insufficient against the hosts Australia.
Stokes made a late announcement of his decision to play in the Ashes, returning from a break he took for the betterment of his mental health. With the 30-year old not playing any cricket leading up to the series, he couldn't flourish as expected. He ended up with 236 runs and just four wickets in five Tests.
Ben Stokes has bowled 9 balls and taken 2 wickets. Here’s the second of them: https://t.co/0698YHUN4F
Stokes stated that looking back on the series, he feels disappointed for letting people down and wants to make amends. While the Test team's vice-captain admitted his performances weren't up to that level, he also expressed his dissatisfaction with the fitness levels he had during the series.
"When I look back on it, I felt I let myself down but the thing that really grinds me the most and hurts me the most is that I let a lot of other people down and I never want to feel that way again. Everyone’s taken some good hard lessons from Australia.
The leading all-rounder of the English team was further quoted as saying by The Guardian:
Looking back on Australia, we’ve had some honest reflections not only as a team but individuals as well. I personally felt I let the team down with more than just performances: I would have liked to have been in better physical shape," .
England's batting performances were the most disappointing aspect of their 4-0 Ashes defeat. Joe Root and company failed to reach the 300-run mark even once across the five Tests, while Jonny Bairstow was the only batsman to score a century.
"I had a chance to have a good look at things going forward" - Ben Stokes
Ben Stokes, who withdrew from this year's IPL, addressed that decision by saying that Test cricket holds top priority for him. With plenty of cricket to take place in the coming months, he saw it fit to give red-ball cricket the priority.
"I had a chance to have a good look at things going forward and when it came down to it, the real thing that got me excited, out of all three formats, was Test cricket. That was a big decision - to come out of the IPL, to make sure that I was able to give everything I possibly could to this Test team."
The star of England's World Cup victory in 2019 stated that the schedule requires him to make a choice between different formats.
There’s a massive summer ahead, a lot of cricket to play and you just have to look at the schedules at times and think what’s the most important thing – and Test cricket is the most important for me."
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Ben Stokes was part of England's four-day practice match in Antigua ahead of the Test series against the West Indies, which begins on March 8. The New Zealand-born cricketer made only 11 and 19 in the two batting innings he had in the match. However, he took two wickets in the second innings of the opposition.