England skipper Ben Stokes backed the team’s Bazball approach ahead of the India series but stressed the need for situational adaptability, urging his players to stay fearless while also adjusting to conditions across the five-match Test battle.
00:01Yeah, very. It's been a long time coming, obviously nearly at the back end of June now.
00:07And for this to be our build-up towards the second test since the New Year's, obviously a long time to wait.
00:14So, yeah, we've had different preparations for different individuals.
00:18Obviously we've had some guys getting their bodies right, some guys playing kind of cricket.
00:23But, yeah, everyone's really excited to be here now and to get going tomorrow.
00:26And as you head into this period, five tests against India, then the Ashes.
00:31Is this the biggest challenge you'll face as captain so far, do you think?
00:35Look, I think first and foremost, obviously it's five games against India that we're focusing on.
00:40We know it's going to be tough, always is against India.
00:44Five test matches are very demanding on the body.
00:48So, yeah, we'll be focusing on these five games first.
00:52And you named your team yesterday. Is everyone fully fit still?
00:55Hope so.
00:56Good. Good to hear.
00:58Big selection decision was around who bats at three.
01:02Can you just talk us through the thinking behind the decision to stick with Ollie Pope
01:06and how close was it between Jacob Bethel and Pope?
01:11Well, big selection just came from not us.
01:17Be remarkable to choose someone else if their last knock was 170.
01:23That's pretty much all I need to say on that.
01:25And how has Ollie handled the extra scrutiny around his position?
01:30How has he dealt with that?
01:31Yeah, look, I think in this day and age, it's very tough to not see all the kind of speculation and stuff around it just because of how easily accessible things are.
01:42You don't even have to go and hunt for it.
01:45I think scoring 170 in his last test matches has shown how well he's handled that extra scrutiny of it.
01:57And it comes with the territory, I guess, you know, when you are an international player, you know, it comes with it.
02:04You know, it's one of those things where when you're a kid, you dream about playing for England and obviously it's an unbelievable thing.
02:12But, you know, then the other side of it is that you can come under the pump a little bit and that's part of the territory.
02:18And, you know, part of sort of handling it is also being able to handle the scrutiny that no doubt is always going to come someone's way at some point.
02:27In terms of your bowling attack, you're missing a number of players through injury.
02:31How important, how big a boost have Chris Wokes back?
02:35Yeah, really good.
02:37You know, since, I think this is correct, but since me and Baz have been captain and coach, I don't think we've actually lost a game with Wokesy in the team.
02:47So, again, that just proves how much of a valuable cricketer he is to any team that he turns out for.
02:53Well, I think him being the leader of the attack, he's going to thrive off that responsibility.
03:00And, yeah, he's a quality cricketer, you know, the relentlessness that he has with the ball, whether that be new ball or old ball.
03:07And then having his ability with a bat down at number eight is obviously massive for us.
03:10And Wokes aside, a pretty inexperienced attack with Josh Tong and Bryden Kast.
03:15How big a test will this be for them?
03:17Yeah, I think, like, experience and inexperience, it's obviously spoken about a lot.
03:24But I see at the end of the day, whether you've played 100 games or five games, it's your skills that are the most important and valuable thing when you come out to playing, you know, any form of cricket.
03:36Bryden's had an unbelievable start to his international career in all formats, to be honest.
03:40And he's been great for this test team when he's put the shirt on.
03:44So I don't look into that too much.
03:46And it's great to have Tungy back over, you know, the injuries that he had for pretty much a year, you know, out of the game.
03:54So to see him back playing for knots and doing really well and getting his opportunity again in England shirt is very exciting.
04:01So, yeah, really looking forward to the boys going out there this week.
04:05Will they get help by the pitch at all?
04:07It looks greener than usual.
04:10Yeah, Headingley's generally the probably best overall cricket wicket that we tend to play on.
04:16We've had some fantastic games here over the last couple of years.
04:19You know, if batters get in, they are very hard to stop because of how true the wicket can be, how fast the outfield is.
04:28But you always feel like there's something in the wicket there for you as a bowler.
04:33So, yeah, well, I know there's scheduled 30 degree heat, but it is north.
04:39So it could turn up and it'd be six degrees blowing again and raining.
04:43So, yeah, just to wait and see what the lovely northern weather's got to offer us this week.
04:48Ben, could I just ask you, I mean, physically, I've been watching you train over the last couple of days.
04:53It seems from where we were standing that you've been absolutely 100 percent.
04:57But do you feel as good as you ever have done physically at the start of a test match series?
05:05God.
05:07Physically, well, I mean, when I was 20, I didn't even know what stiffness or anything was.
05:12I'm obviously now 34 and, you know, everything is just naturally just a little bit harder to do.
05:20But, look, I've I've worked hard to be where I am here today and, you know, physically where I'm at.
05:25It's it's great.
05:27Yeah.
05:27Raring to go and just a bit more sort of sensible, I guess, about my build up, you know, work hard for, you know, the first two training days, two days out.
05:36And then, you know, sort of very, very chilled and light the day before just to make sure that everything is ready to go come game day.
05:42Ben, as well as obviously trying to win every test match you play, I know the broader aim of this kind of era of English test cricket has been to make it exciting and to bring people to test cricket.
05:51When India are in the country, you kind of know the eyes of the world are on you.
05:56So in that process of just bringing people to test cricket, I wonder if that makes it an extra level of of excitement around the start of this series.
06:05Yeah, they're always obviously India always brings excitement with them wherever they go in the world.
06:10You know, we still want to be known as a team who play an exciting style of cricket.
06:18But, you know, now we are not that we never wanted to win every game that we played, but, you know, it's sort of changing the sort of what we say, how we say it.
06:35And so, you know, we want to be playing an exciting game of cricket because we know that sort of that's what brings the best out of individuals, brings the best out of us as a team.
06:46But it's about winning.
06:49Just finally for me, just quickly back on Olly Pope, would you say that that that big hundred against Zimbabwe was a decisive factor in his selection for this for this test match?
06:57Or are there broader issues at play when you when you made that decision?
07:01Well, looking more long term about what he's brought to England.
07:05Was that 170 the decisive factor in his selection, do you think?
07:10Scoring 170 definitely doesn't do anyone any harm.
07:13But, no, look, I said this when I spoke about it before the Zimbabwe test, you know, having him at number three since I've been captain over a three-year period, averaging over 40s, speaks for itself, I think.
07:26Thank you very much.
07:28We obviously had the World Test Championship final at Lourdes.
07:32Because you've obviously had your opinions on that in the past.
07:35It's restarting again now, the next qualification period starts.
07:39Are you sort of at peace with that tournament or that standings, how it's all worked out?
07:46I get asked about the World Test Championship and stuff.
07:51And, obviously, then I'm not just going to say what sort of is expected to say.
07:57I will give my honest opinion on it.
07:59Great.
08:01Which I feel I do.
08:03But, look, to get to the final of the World Test Championship, you have to win games of cricket.
08:07And that's what we focus on.
08:10If we win enough games of cricket, then we'll find ourselves there at the final of the World Test Championship.
08:16I think that's probably a better way of saying it is that we don't focus on it.
08:19You know, we focus on every game that we have in front of us, focus on the series that we have in front of us.
08:25And if we win games of cricket, we will find ourselves at the World Test Championship final.
08:33And if we get there, we will also look to win that.
08:36And, obviously, something you'll know is that captaincy sits well on some people's shoulders.
08:41It sort of sits nicely and it helps improvement and thrive.
08:45You've got Harry in the team who's just taken over the white ball team, won six in a row.
08:50Is he just looking around him now since he was last with you?
08:52Does he feel pumped up by it and somebody who's maybe grown as part of that experience?
08:57Oh, it's very hard to get Harry Brooke looking like he's pumped up about much, isn't it?
09:01You know, he's a very chilled, calm, collected character.
09:04But I think the responsibility of having that one-day captaincy role now for him is, you know,
09:10great to have another senior person in this dressing room as well.
09:17You know, the more people that I feel I have to speak to, voice to, when we're out in the heat of the moment
09:26or whether we're off the field, anything like that, the better.
09:30You know, I feel I'm always pretty good at asking people's opinion
09:35and not focusing too much on what I think.
09:39Because sometimes you do miss certain things if you get too involved within your own sort of thought processes
09:45and thoughts towards things.
09:47So I've always, to be honest, used Brookie anyway.
09:51But, yeah, I think him having that extra leadership role now with being one-day captain
09:55is going to be very helpful for me as well as all the other leaders I've got in the dressing room.
09:59This time around, the crowd will be coming in, excited, not to watch Virat Kohli, but Jaspreet Bumrah.
10:09How do you look at this change?
10:11Is it exciting for you too?
10:15Exciting that the crowd's coming to watch Bumrah?
10:18Yeah.
10:19Not Virat Kohli, but for Bumrah.
10:20Yeah, so obviously there's been a lot of said about no Rohit, no Virat and no Ashwin.
10:34That doesn't mean that we think it's going to be any easier than what it ever is against India.
10:40The pool of talent that Indian cricket has is just ginormous.
10:45So, although Virat, Rohit and Ashwin have done amazing things for their country on the field,
10:53that doesn't mean that whoever comes in to replace, you know,
10:58those individuals are going to be any less hard to bowl at or bat against
11:04just because of how big the pool of talent is in India.
11:08We've obviously spent a lot of time out of the IPL, so I know that there's a lot of it.
11:12But yeah, obviously three massive names, three people who have done wonderful things for their country,
11:18but it's not going to be any easy for us because those three big names aren't here.
11:23We'll take three more, one here, one here in the front.
11:26Yeah.
11:27Ben, this series will be England's first home series against India
11:32with that new high-risk, high-gain philosophy,
11:35the brand of test cricket you guys are playing in test cricket,
11:38since you and Brendan have taken over.
11:41So, just wanted to know the prospect of playing that brand of cricket
11:44against an Indian bowling attack, which is as good as anything.
11:48And we have seen what this bowling attack is capable of in Australia.
11:51So, just your thoughts on that.
11:54Did you forget the one that we won in Birmingham?
11:56Yeah, that one-off game, of course.
11:58Yeah.
12:02That's why I said the full series.
12:03No, look, India, you know, obviously Bumbra leading their attack is a fantastic bowler,
12:09but there's 11 players on a team, and it takes a team to win a game of cricket.
12:16And, look, we know Bumbra is an amazing bowler all around the world.
12:21You know, his record shows that.
12:22Wherever he goes, he does well.
12:25So, you know, we know Bumbra is going to be a threat,
12:29but we know that every other bowler that India have is also going to be a threat.
12:32So, focusing on one individual over another isn't what we're going to be doing.
12:37But, you know, obviously you pay respect to your opposition,
12:41and Jasper, but Bumbra certainly is a fantastic bowler.
12:44Hi, Ben.
12:46Ben, of course, it's a new Indian team, new-looking Indian team,
12:50new captain Shubhman Gill.
12:51You have seen him play in the IPL and in international white ball cricket as well,
12:55even in red ball.
12:56What's your assessment about Shubhman Gill, the overall package,
12:59and, of course, leading this Indian team?
13:01Will it be pressure for him, especially in England?
13:04Yeah, I think Shubhman Gill's a very, very fine player.
13:09He's been around a long time now, considering he's only young.
13:12He's played a lot of cricket.
13:14You know, a lot of IPL cricket, and actually a lot of cricket for India.
13:17So, yeah, I think it's an exciting time for Indian cricket to be in the new leadership.
13:24It's obviously a lot of pressure being captain of any Indian team, definitely.
13:30But, yeah, it's an exciting time.
13:33I think it always is for teams when a new leadership role comes into it.
13:39So, yeah, obviously he is my opposition for the next six weeks,
13:43so I won't go into it too much.
13:45But all the best.
13:48OK, we're done. Thank you.
13:53UK room, we'll do it at the front on a 6th of the day.
