England captain Ben Stokes says he will not make allowances for Australia and change his style for the Ashes as that would render all the progress of the last year “completely pointless”.
The so-called ‘Bazball’ revolution has seen the Test side flourish under the leadership of the all-rounder in partnership with coach and former New Zealand international Brendon McCullum, with the team having claimed 11 wins in 13 matches.
Edgbaston hosts the opening Ashes Test, starting Friday, and Stokes says despite the history between the two sides, the quality of the opposition and what is at stake, he would not deviate from their attacking game-plan against the newly crowned World Test Championship winners.
“Nothing is going to change because we’ve had unbelievable success with it,” Stokes, who said his priority was to make everything “fun”, told BBC Test Match Special.
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“If we were to change anything from the last 12 months because we find ourselves in an Ashes series then anything from the last 12 months will have been completely pointless.”
“Even before getting together as a Test team for the first time with me as captain, there was one simple thing I said I had to be doing and that was being completely true to myself.
“I had to stay true to how I’ve gone about things as a player, and do them as a captain. I had 85 or 86 games before I got made captain, and the guys that I’ve played with knew me as a person and a player.
“So if I became captain and started doing things completely differently to what they knew me for, it would raise a few eyebrows.”
-PA
