Ben Stokes may have described England’s recent lack of Test action as “a bit odd” but playing just one game in the past six months has given the side space to reconsider their approach before the series against India.
Stokes has won 23 of his 33 games in charge while losing 12 and insisted: “I don’t think it’s arrogant to say that we’ve been good over the last three years.” But with England’s next 10 Tests coming against either India – starting at Headingley on Friday – or Australia they have prepared for potential adversity.
“We’ve had a lot of time to speak about what we want to do as a team and where we want to take ourselves,” Stokes said. “We’ve had time to identify areas where we know we are incredibly strong, but also areas that we think we need to get better at. One of those was adapting better when we’re up against the wall.
“When those moments come in the series, that they no doubt will, it’s identifying them a lot quicker. We know that when we are on top of teams we are very, very good, and where we maybe have let ourselves down in the past is when we have been behind the game. It’s about being smarter in those situations when it’s obvious that the opposition is on top of us.
“I think if [you] look at some of the victories we’ve had, they have been in a manner of complete dominance of the game throughout. But when we’ve lost we probably look back on moments. Could we have been a lot better at slowing everything down and understanding where we are in the position of the game, to then allow us to play in that natural way that we like to go about things?”
Stokes said he thinks “conversations together in a room as a group are sometimes just as valuable as training in the nets and working harder”, but he has found time for both, with his return to full fitness after an operation on his hamstring in January allowing him to work on his bowling action.
“I can’t remember the last time I was able to work so hard on just technical stuff,” he said. “To be able to get myself back to where I feel like I was before my injuries is really good, because there were quite a few changes that crept into my action – how I was landing, how I was approaching the crease – because of my knee or because of my hamstring. It was nice to be able to get rid of those.”
Stokes insisted that Ollie Pope’s 171 against Zimbabwe had ended any discussion about his place in the team for this week’s first Test. “It would be remarkable to choose someone else if [his] last knock was 170,” he said.
One player who did not feature against Zimbabwe – despite occasionally pestering his captain for a callup on WhatsApp – but might play his first Test in more than four years before the summer is out is Jofra Archer. “He’s been absolutely desperate to put the white shirt back on,” Stokes said. “Randomly, a couple of times, he would just send me: ‘Zim?’ I was like: ‘Let’s not rush into it.’”
India arrive in search of their first series victory in England since 2007, having won just one of their last eight Tests and with a much-changed team, a situation their new captain, Shubman Gill, is looking at as a bonus.
“People talk like our side is not experienced, but there are also positives that we don’t really have any baggage coming here. That could be what really makes a difference for us,” said Gill, who has delayed naming his team because of doubts over who will bat at No 3.
