The death of Bazball? Stokes finally admits Test revamp may be needed after Ashes humiliation

A despondent Ben Stokes has accepted that opposition teams have worked out how to combat England’s aggressive approach to the game’s longest format, confessing the Test side may need to go “back to the drawing board” ahead of the home summer.

Australia won the Ashes campaign 4-1 after securing a five-wicket victory during the New Year’s Test at the SCG, retaining the coveted urn for a fifth-consecutive series since 2017.

England were outclassed in all facets of the game across the five-match tour; the top-order batters struggled to tame Australia’s fast bowlers on the bouncy decks, while the inexperienced seamers failed to exploit the seam-friendly conditions. And that’s without mentioning the dropped catches.

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Speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon, Stokes conceded his team had lacked execution across the seven-week tour, with their performances “far below the level” they were capable of.

“There are moments throughout the series where we have almost gifted the flow of the game back to the opposition,” he said.

“When you come up against a team like Australia, who know how to play cricket out here the same way they do the back of their hand, and you are also adding to your own downfall, then you are going to end up losing the series 4-1 like we have done.”

He added: “We have not been able to deliver the quality of cricket that is required to win Test matches, particularly out here in Australia. That is with bat, that is with ball, and in the field. It has just been so far below the level that this team can operate at.

“It has just been down to the lack of execution.”

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Following the appointment of head coach Brendon McCullum in 2022, England’s Test side embraced an attacking philosophy, colloquially dubbed ‘Bazball’, that brought about immediate success, including series wins against New Zealand and South Africa at home before and a 3-0 whitewash in Pakistan.

However, England has now on two occasions failed to win back the Ashes urn since McCullum took charge, while the team has slipped to seventh on the World Test Championship standings. The team’s record since the start of 2024 has been 13 wins from 28 matches, including 14 losses.

Stokes suggested that Australia has unearthed a blueprint for muzzling the Bazball approach, including having wicketkeeper Alex Carey up to the stumps, spreading the field for a bouncer ploy and relentlessly hitting a hard length. He also hinted the team may need to reassess its strategy across the next six months.

“What we managed to achieve in the first two years (under McCullum) was very good,” Stokes said.

“We wanted to build on that. We wanted to grow as a team and be even more consistent. If anything, we’ve done the opposite of that.

“We’ve started losing more. We’ve not won the big series that we want to be winning.

“When a trend is happening on a consistent basis, then that’s when you need to go back and look at the drawing board and make some adjustments.”

He continued: “We are now playing against teams who have answers to the style of cricket that we have been playing over quite a long period of time now.

“In the first couple of years, teams found it difficult to try and come up with anything to combat the way that we played.

“But now teams are coming up with plans that are actually standing up to a certain style of cricket that we want to play.”

Elsewhere, chief executive Richard Gould has announced ECB would announce a “thorough review” into the team’s “preparation, individual performance and behaviours, and our ability to adapt and respond effectively as circumstances require” during the Ashes tour.

“While there were moments of strong performance and resilience during the series, including a hard-fought victory in the fourth Test in Melbourne, we were not consistent enough across all conditions and phases of the contest, and Australia ultimately deserved to retain the Ashes,” he said in a statement.

Speaking to BBC Test Match Special, McCullum accepted that England’s methods may need “a couple of tweaks” moving forward, floating the potential of adapting his methods.

“I’m all for progress and evolution in all sports,” McCullum explained.

“I’m not pig-headed (enough) to think there’s not some areas that we can improve on, and once we digest what’s unfolded over the last two months and start to plot and plan a way forward, if you’re the man in the chair to do so, then you do so with a similar conviction in your methods – albeit with a couple of tweaks.”

England young gun Jacob Bethell, playing his sixth Test, cracked a stylish 154 during the second innings of the Sydney contest, giving the tourists a chance of stealing an unlikely victory from the Australians.

Stokes admitted that he and his teammates could learn a lot from the 22-year-old’s approach in the middle; soaking up pressure, playing under his eyeline and waiting for the poor deliveries before attacking.

“To play in the way that he did and put the amount of runs he did … was simply outstanding,” Stokes said of Bethell.

“The manner that he did it in I thought was top class.

“Even myself and some of the other guys can look at that and look at how he applied himself in different moments throughout his innings. It is something that we can all take a lot of.”

Stokes declared he was “keen as anything” to continue leading England’s Test team moving forward, but confessed there was “a lot of work to be done” and a “lot of conversations” to be had ahead of the home summer.

“I love having a challenge thrown at me, and at the moment the challenge is getting the team back to where we once were in terms of the performances that we were delivering,” he said.

“I have not been up to the levels that I expected of myself as an all-round player and as a captain as well, but I can tell that to myself. There is nothing wrong with being truthful to yourself and there is also nothing wrong with being truthful to your teammates as well.”

Stokes also threw his full support behind McCullum, proclaiming that he expected the New Zealander to remain head coach moving forward. However, he emphasised that it wasn’t his decision.

“He’s a great man, and he’s a very, very, very good coach,” Stokes said.

“We know how to run a dressing room.”

Stokes also confirmed he would undergo scans in the United Kingdom on the “little groin tweak” that prevented him from bowling during the second innings at the SCG.