Ben Stokes on England selection and preview of India first test at Headingley

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Ben Stokes on England selection and preview of India first test at Headingley  19/06/2025  Headingley Stadium, Leeds, UK

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00:00we've got English captain Ben Stokes cameras all good at the back we're going to start as usual

00:15with Sky the BBC open up to everyone else and then we'll do a separate written round table

00:20for the English written media at the end as well James over to you Ben the sun's out headingly

00:26five tests to come against India how excited are you for the challenge ahead yeah very it's been

00:33a long time coming obviously nearly at the back end of June now and for this to be our build up

00:40towards the second test since the new year's obviously a long time to wait so yeah we've had

00:45different preparations for different individuals obviously we've had some guys getting their

00:51bodies right some guys playing counting cricket but yeah everyone's really excited to be here now

00:55and to get going tomorrow and as you head into this period five tests against India then the ashes is

01:01this the biggest challenge you you'll face as captain so far do you think um oh look I think

01:06first and foremost obviously it's uh five games against India that we're focusing on um we know

01:10it's going to be tough always as against India um five test matches um uh very demanding on the body so

01:17um yeah we'll be focusing on on these five games first and you named your team yesterday is everyone

01:24fully fit still hope so good good to hear big selection decision was around who bats at three

01:31can you just talk us through the thinking behind the decision to stick with Ollie Pope and how close

01:36was it between uh Jacob Bethel and Pope well big selection just came from not us um be remarkable to

01:48choose someone else if their last knock was 170 um that's pretty much all I need to say on that

01:55and how has Ollie handled the extra scrutiny around his position how's he dealt with that

02:00um yeah look I think in this day and age it's very tough to not see all the kind of speculation and

02:08stuff around it just because of how easily accessible things are um you don't even have to go and

02:14hunt for it to to see it these days but um I think you know scoring 170 um in his last test

02:21matches sort of showing how well he's handled that extra scrutiny of it and it comes with the

02:27territory I guess you know when you are um an international player that you know it comes with

02:34it um you know it's one of those things where when you're kid you you dream about playing for

02:39England and obviously it's an unbelievable thing but you know then the other side of it is that

02:45you can come under the pump a little bit and that's part of the territory and you know part of

02:49sort of handling it is also being able to to handle the scrutiny that no doubt is always going

02:55to come someone's way at some point in terms of your bowling attack you're missing a number of

02:59players through injury how important how big a boost to have Chris Wokes back yeah really good um

03:06you know since I think this is correct but since me and Baz have been captain and coach I don't

03:13think we've actually lost a game with Wokes in in the team so um again that just proves how much of a

03:20valuable cricketer he is to any team that he turns out for um I think him being the leader of the attack

03:27he's going to thrive off that responsibility um and yeah he's a quality cricketer you know the

03:32the relentless the study has of the ball whether that be new ball or old ball and then having his

03:37ability with a back down number eight is obviously massive for us

03:39and Wokes aside a pretty inexperienced attack with Josh Tong and Bryden Kars how big a test will this be

03:46for them um yeah I think like experience and experience it's obviously it's spoken about a lot but

03:54I see at the end of the day whether you played 100 games or five games it's your skills that are

03:59the most important and valuable thing when you come out to playing you know any form of cricket

04:05um Bryden's had an unbelievable start to his international career in all formats to be honest

04:10and he's been great for uh this test team when he's put the shirt on so um I don't look into that too

04:16much and it's great to have Tungy back over you know the injuries that he had for pretty much a year

04:21um you know out of the game um so to see him back playing for knots and doing really well and

04:27um getting his opportunity um again in England sure it's very exciting so um yeah really looking

04:33forward to the boys going out there this week and will they get help by the pitch at all it looks

04:37greener than usual um yeah headingly is generally the the probably best quick like overall cricket

04:44wicket that we tend to play on we've had some fantastic games here over the last couple of years

04:49um you know if batters get in they are very hard to stop because of how true the wicket can be how

04:56fast the outfield is but you always feel like there's something in the wicket there for you as

05:01a bowler um so yeah well I know there's scheduled 30 degree heat but it is north so could turn up and

05:10it be six degrees blowing again and raining so yeah just have to wait and see what the lovely

05:16northern weather's got to offer us this week Ben could I just ask you I mean physically I've been

05:21watching you train over the last couple of days it seems from where we were standing that you've

05:25been absolutely 100% but do you feel as good as you ever have done physically at the start of a test

05:31match series um god physically well I mean when I was 20 I didn't even know what stiffness or

05:41anything was um obviously now 34 um you know everything is just naturally just a little bit

05:48harder to do but um look I've I've worked hard to be where I am here today and you know physically

05:54where I'm at it's it's great um yeah raring to go and um just a bit more sort of sensible I guess

06:00about my build up you know work hard for you know the first two training days two days out and then

06:06you know sort of very very chilled and light the day before just to make sure that everything's

06:10going to go come game day Ben is obviously trying to win every test match you play I know the broader

06:15aim of this kind of era of English test cricket has been to make it exciting and to bring people to

06:19test cricket when India are in the country you you kind of know the eyes of the world are on you so

06:26in that process of just bringing people to test cricket I wonder if that makes it an

06:30extra level of of excitement around the start of this series yeah they're always obviously India

06:37always brings excitement with them wherever they go in the world um you know we still want to be

06:43known as a team who play an exciting style of cricket um but you know now we are not that we never

06:53wanted to win every game that we played but you know it's sort of changing the sort of what we say

07:03how we say it so you know we want to be playing an exciting game of cricket because we know that

07:10sort of that's what brings the best out of individuals brings the best out of us as a team

07:14um but it's about winning just finally for me just quickly back on Olly Poe would you say that that

07:22that big hundred against Zimbabwe was a decisive factor in his selection for this for this test match or

07:26the broader issues at play when you when you made that decision brought well looking more long term

07:33about what he's brought to England or did that one was that 170 of the decisive factor in his selection do you think

07:39scoring 170 definitely doesn't do anyone any harm no but um no look i said this when i'd speak spoke

07:46about before the Zimbabwe test you know having him at number three since i've been captain over a

07:51three-year period averaging over 40s speaks for itself i think thank you very much

07:56we obviously had the uh world test championship final at lords that you've obviously had your

08:03opinions on on that in the past it's restarting again now the next the next qualification period

08:08starts are you sort of at peace with with that tournament of that standings how it's all worked

08:13out it's what look i get i get asked about the world test championship and and stuff and

08:21obviously then i'm not just going to say what sort of is expected to say i will give my honest opinion

08:28on it great um which i feel i do but look to get to the final of the world test championship

08:35you have to win games of cricket um and that's what we focus on um if we win enough games of

08:41cricket then we'll find ourselves there at the final of the world test championship um i think

08:46that's probably a better way of saying is that we don't focus on it you know we focus on every game

08:50that we have in front of us um focus on the series that we have in front of us and if we win games of

08:58cricket we will find ourselves at the world test championship final um and if we get there we

09:03will also look to win that and obviously something you'll know is is that captaincy sits sits well on

09:10some people's shoulders it it sort of sits nicely and it helps improvement and and thrive you've got

09:16harry in the team who's just taken over the white ball team won six in a row is he just looking around

09:21him now since since he was last with you does he feel that pumped up by it and somebody who's maybe

09:24grown as part of that experience oh it's very hard to get harry brook looking like he's pumped up about

09:30much isn't it you know he's um he's a very chilled calm collected character but um i think the

09:35responsibility of having that one day captaincy role now for him is um you know great to have

09:42another senior person in this dressing room as well um you know the more people that i feel i have to

09:51speak to voice to when we're out in the heat of the moment or whether we're off the field

09:57anything like that the better um you know i feel i'm i'm always pretty good at asking people's opinion

10:04um and not focusing too much on what i think um because sometimes you do miss certain things if

10:12you get too involved within your own sort of thought processes and thoughts towards things so

10:16um i've always to be honest used rookie anyway um but yeah i think him having that extra leadership

10:23role now with being one day captain is going to do um be very helpful for me as well as all the

10:28leaders i've got in the dressing room yes yeah this time around uh crowd will be coming in uh excited

10:36not to watch virad koly but just please boomerah how do you look at this change is it exciting for you

10:42too exciting that the crowd's coming to watch boomerah yeah yeah so obviously there's been a lot of

10:57said about no rohit no vira and no ashwin um that doesn't mean that we think it's going to be any

11:06easier than what it ever is against india um the pool of talent that indian cricket has is just

11:14ginormous um so although virad rohit and ashwin have done amazing things for their country on the

11:21field um that doesn't mean that whoever comes in to replace you know those individuals are going to be

11:29any less um hard to bowl out or bat against just because of how big the pool of talent is in india

11:37um i've spent a lot of time out of the ipl so i know that um there's a lot of it um but yeah

11:43obviously three massive names three people who have done wonderful things for their country um but

11:49it's not going to be any easy for us because those three big names aren't here

11:52i'll say three more one here one here in the front yeah ben uh this series will be uh england's

12:00first home series against india uh with that new high risk high gain philosophy the brand of test

12:06cricket you guys are playing in test cricket uh since you have you and brendan have taken over

12:10so just wanted to know the prospect of playing that brand of cricket against an indian bowling attack

12:15which is as good as anything and we have seen what this bowling attack is capable of in australia

12:20so just your thoughts on that did you forget the one that we won in birmingham yeah that one-off game

12:27of course yeah

12:28that's why i said the full series no look um india you know obviously bummer leading their attacks

12:38fantastic bowler um but there's 11 players on a team and it takes the team to win a game of cricket

12:44um and but we know bummer is an amazing bowler um all around the world you know his record shows

12:52that wherever he goes he he does well so um you know we know bummer is going to be a threat but we

12:58know that every other bowler that india have is is also going to be a threat so focusing on on one

13:03individual over another isn't what we're going to be doing um but you know obviously you pay respect

13:09your opposition and um jasmine bummer certainly is a fantastic bowler uh hi ben uh ben uh of course

13:17it's a new new indian team new looking indian team new captain shubhman gil you have seen him play in

13:22the ipl and in international white ball cricket as well even in red ball how what's your assessment

13:26about shubhman gil the overall package and of course leading this indian team will it be pressure

13:31for him especially in england yeah i think shubhman gil's a very very fine player um he's been around

13:40a long time now considering he's only young he's played a lot of cricket um you know a lot of

13:45ipl cricket actually a lot of cricket for india so um yeah i think it's an exciting time for indian

13:49cricket to be in the new leadership um it's obviously a lot of pressure being captain of any indian

13:57team um definitely but um yeah it's exciting time i think it always is for teams when um a new

14:06leadership role comes into it um so yeah obviously he is my opposition for the next six weeks so i

14:13won't go into it too much but um all the best okay we're done thank you thank you thank you

14:20thank you okay we'll do it at the front

14:24okay

14:24you

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