England men’s Test captain Ben Stokes has stated that the team’s offensive philosophy will not change for the three-Test series against South Africa, which begins on Wednesday at Lord’s.
England won four Tests in a row to begin the summer, sweeping New Zealand in their three-match series – chasing scores of over 275 in each Test – and then defeating India with a record run-chase of 378.
South Africa captain Dean Elgar is the latest to weigh in on England’s new ‘Bazball’ style, saying, that he doesn’t see that there’s longevity in courageous cricket.
Whoever Plays The Best Cricket Will Win: Ben Stokes
“The opposition seems to be doing a lot of the talking at the moment about it,” Stokes said ahead of the first test.
We just concentrate on what we do. We’ve got a style of play, they’ve got a style of play. At the end of the day, it’s bat against the ball and whoever plays best in a Test match is most likely to win. I’m happy for Dean and the South African team to keep saying they’re not interested but also keep talking about it.”
“It’s about making sure that five-week period doesn’t mean we’ve lost our venom. It would be easy to have so long away to almost forget the place we managed to find ourselves in. The results will look after themselves. If we play to the standard that we have done over the last four Test matches, we know we’re going to give ourselves a great opportunity of winning the game.
England also announced their XI for the test.
England men’s XI, first Test: Ben Stokes (c), Zak Crawley, Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, Matthew Potts, James Anderson