England Has To Stand Its Ground In Ashes To Stop The Rot Down Under

England’s Ben Stokes (right) is congratulated by Tim Bresnan (left) after scoring 100 not out during day five of the Third Test at the WACA ground, Perth, Australia. (Photo by Anthony Devlin/PA Images via Getty Images)

PA Images via Getty Images

Ben Stokes’s only crime so far in the Ashes phony war was to land in Perth. It triggered a hysterical reaction from Australia’s daily newspapers. The Ashes down under is always a chance for Pom-bashing editors to let the attack dogs off the leash. “England’s Cocky Captain Complainer, still smarting from ‘crease-gate’ lands in Perth early thinking dopey ‘BazBall’ can take the Ashes,” was the word salad broadside in The West Australian.

Even as news came through that Josh Hazlewood has joined Pat Cummins on the crocked absentees list for the first Test at Perth, the diatribe kept coming. “Form, Injury, homesickness, fright: How England’s pre-Ashes bravado typically comes undone in Australia,” shouted The Age’s opinion page.

These headlines come with the choppy territory. Australia loves to stir things up in the England camp before a ball has been bowled. If the tourists are daft enough to create negative stories off the field – such as Jonny Bairstow’s infamous ‘headbutt’ on Cameron Bancroft in 2017– then the media will run with it, spin it like Nathan Lyon, and use it to lambast Stokes’s team. The Australian sense of superiority does have merit. England has drawn two and lost 13 of their last 15 Ashes Tests overseas.

The trail of what Steve Waugh coined “mental disintegration” has a long history. Twelve years ago, Mitchell Johnson terrorized England in the same way that Lillee and Thomson did in the 1974-75 Ashes. Glenn McGrath regularly throttled England’s top order while Shane Warne was the snake charmer who wrapped his coil around their throats. The Australia of 21 November won’t sound as scary on the team sheet. That’s no guarantee of success.

The last time England had a chance to beat an Australia shorn of Hazlewood and Cummins, they fell badly short in Adelaide during the Covid-affected tour of 2021. That fateful series saw Joe Root leave out his A-list bowlers Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson for the first match, much to the horror of English fans and the bemusement and/or amusement of most Australians. England seems to lose its senses in Australia. The first ball of that tour mesmerized Rory Burns and took down his leg stump. Nothing went well thereafter.

Stokes and Brendon McCullum have built a side that runs towards the danger. The first ball of the 2023 Ashes was flayed through the offside by Zak Crawley. The excuses for under-performance are now gone. It doesn’t matter what the headlines say. England has to take Australia head-on without headbutts. It will be a thorough examination of Bazball’s development. Do Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum believe that they can carry through with their brand of explosive run-getting and then back it up with a full pace attack that won’t break down?

Steve Smith’s captivating battle with Jofra Archer in 2019 was the kind of moment that England must recreate. Bodyline can’t be asinine. If England’s blitzkrieg approach with bat and ball becomes too predictable, what else do they have? McCullum has an obsession with the phrase “bowling rockets.” England’s attack does not have the ferocity of the West Indies’ fearsome four.

Timidity has been a feature of England teams in the past. Stokes, that most belligerent of cricketers, was muted in the 2021-22 Ashes. His first four innings had a strike rate below 40. It was all about survival, but with no ammunition to get out of the bunker. These are numbers that Bazball can’t compute.

When England lost the Ashes 4-0 in 2017/18, the Guardian wrote about the hesitancy to drive through any advantage in English-style conditions under lights at Adelaide, stating they “were timid with the ball until darkness descended on the third evening.” Darkness has often descended quickly on England in Australia.

Stokes won’t accept meekness. The strut of the side gained full traction at the home of cricket against India this summer, when Archer, Brydon Carse, and Stokes himself roasted Shubman Gill’s teams with hot deliveries and some choice words. England’s sledging will only be functional if they can control days rather than just hold their own in a session.

In three attempts, England has failed to beat the other two members of Test cricket’s Big Three. David Warner brought up Bazball’s apparent obsession with a “moral victory” being more important than the result. England became the self-proclaimed saviours of Test cricket when they beat up every side in the first dozen Bazball Test matches.

Stokes became obsessed with the 2025 Ashes and recently admitted that it had colored his view. With all the negative talk about the lack of preparation on the pitch, England now has to prove that its thunderbirds are go.

“If we’re going to go down, let’s go down doing what we’re known for. Let’s not be timid, be restricted in what we want to do. We want to go out and show the opposition what England is, and what we’ve been known for,” said Stokes before the crucial 2023 World Cup game against South Africa. England was annihilated.

Stokes wasn’t frightened of the rampaging Johnson when he clobbered a hundred at Perth in 2013. That’s the spirit they need here.