Ben Stokes has turned down suggestions that England need to rethink their Bazball approach for the remainder of the Ashes 2025/26.
Despite leading by almost 100 runs with nine wickets in the bank at lunch on Day 2 of the Perth Test, England suffered a mighty collapse and eventually lost the Ashes opener on the same day. Questions and doubts about their approach have resurfaced since, and Stokes was put through some of them.
A fair criticism of their approach is that it doesn’t give the English bowlers enough time to recover between innings, as was apparent in Perth. Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, and Mark Wood bowled fiery spells on the first day and were ably helped by Brydon Carse and Stokes, as Australia folded for 132, 40 short of England’s first innings total.
But the English batters held fort for only 34.4 overs in the second innings. And in the chase that Travis Head aced, England bowlers looked way off, with their speeds dropping from the first innings, partly due to the limited recovery time and partly due to the onslaught.
When asked about his bowlers’ recovery time, Stokes first defended them, stressing that the opening day of an Ashes series “takes a lot out of you, more than what people can probably understand”, and that they “threw quite a lot of energy and effort into that bowling performance yesterday."
He went on: “And look, it is not like we were bowling slowly, even if the pacers were down a few Ks. Mark Wood was sitting in the mid-140s, high 130s, so I wouldn’t say that is slow. Bat for longer is a pretty easy thing to say. It is a lot harder to do. Every bowler would love a bit more rest, but … yeah.”
He also understood the thought process behind the questions, but reiterated his confidence in the process. “We’ve been in situations before where we have been behind in series, so our attitude that stands out that allows us to move on to the next game through good and through bad.
“We’re a very good team at dealing with emotions when we need to think about what we have got coming up next. (And) I’m a pretty level headed person in terms of success and failure, so I’ll wake up in the morning and still be incredibly disappointed. But all of my focus and all of my energy will be going into getting the group back up and moving our thoughts and what we need to do in Brisbane,” he said.
The two innings of the Perth Test were England's second and third fastest, respectively, in terms of runs scored per over.
1st Test, Australia vs England
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- Ball by ball Over
Collapses in both innings of the Perth Test
England suffered twin collapses in the two innings of the Perth Test. They were seemingly on course to around 250 in the first innings at 160-5, with Harry Brook having completed a fifty and Jamie Smith going strong. But they lost their last five wickets for just 12 runs in 18 deliveries.
With a 40-run first-innings lead, the visitors went into lunch on Day 2 at 59-1. But they crumbled in the second session, going from 65-1 to 88-6, and 154-7 to 164 all out. The collapse gave their bowlers just a little over a session to regroup before they were brought down by Head’s 83-ball 123.
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