When Ben Stokes speaks people tend to listen, and in a rallying cry to his World Cup teammates he has told them it is time to start disrupting once more.
In the wake of a stunning defeat by Afghanistan, the Test captain took the floor in the dressing room after the head coach Matthew Mott had spoken and in typically no-nonsense fashion made it clear where England had gone wrong. Flat, tentative, reactionary were all ways to describe England’s performance and Stokes could see it from his vantage point as 12th man, running drinks and trying to cajole from the boundary.
Now that he is set to rejoin the team for their next match against South Africa on Saturday, he will be able to put into practice what he has been preaching, which is to be assertive and unsettle the opposition.
“Stokesy certainly spoke really well after the game the other day,” said Mott. “He spoke about the need to really assert ourselves, of which he’s renowned for.
“Jos did all the media, so I said ‘I’ve got this’ and spoke around the need to get on the front foot with the bat and ball. And then Stokes came in on the back of that and reinforced the message as someone who was sat on the bench and had a bit of a different lens on things.
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"And one of Stokesy’s biggest points was that we’re normally the team that dictates terms and gets the other team unsettled and disrupted. For whatever reason we haven’t been able to do that. So, it’s quite clear what we need to do.”
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DELHI, INDIA - OCTOBER 15: Ben Stokes of England looks on ahead of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup India 2023 between England and Afghanistan at Arun Jaitley Stadium on October 15, 2023 in Delhi, India. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) (Getty Images)Clearly the return of Stokes will be a huge boost to a side that Mott felt played without a lot of confidence against the Afghans. It was especially noticeable in the powerplay and in the bowling of both Chris Woakes and Sam Curran, but also with the bat with players poking and prodding their way through the innings.
Perhaps it was prescient then that the biggest giver of confidence bar Stokes in English cricket, Brendon McCullum, is also in Mumbai for a flying visit on personal business. The Test coach spoke with Mott and no doubt reassured him that the players and England’s performances would come good as long as they could cope with the pressure.
And after recovering from defeat to Ireland in the T20 World Cup last winter to win it, Mott remains level headed about England’s chances of improvement: “Our job and I’ve heard Brendon say it a lot, is to take pressure off the playing group,” Mott added. “There is always pressure in international cricket, there’s nowhere to hide.
“We pride ourselves on putting that on the opposition and on reflection we’ve been the reactive team in those two games, so we need to turn that round really quickly. We’ve been on the back foot, trying to pull things back. So what we need to do is dominate those first 15 overs with bat or ball.
“All options for the team are on the table, but we won’t be making wholesale changes and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You’ve got to cop the odd bad day on the chin.”
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