Captain: If you want to get in this side, play like we do
Ben Stokes has urged county cricketers to play with Englandstyle aggression if they want to press their claims for international selection.
His call follows the Test whitewash of New Zealand, which was completed when England chased down 296 in just 54.2 overs at Headingley, taking their series run rate to 4.54 per over, their highest in a Test series of three matches or more.
“These last three games, they should have sent a message to people who aspire to play Test cricket for England over the next two or three years at least,” Stokes, the England captain, said.
“I would say it’s the manner you play, whether that be with ball or bat in your hand, not necessarily your stats or anything like that. The manner you play is probably going to be first and foremost in selectors’ minds, because what we want to do is build on this.
“And it’s not just about us at the moment, it’s about the future as well, and what I think we’ve done over the last three weeks is make people enjoy watching Test cricket again. If we were on the wrong side of results in these games, if they had
played out the same way but we’d lost, I would have walked off a very happy captain with the way everyone’s applied themselves, the attitude they’ve given, to every single day, every single session, every single hour of these three Test matches. I would like to think people watching know what they have to do to bang the door down and try to get in this team.”
Stokes hailed the side’s performance during the series as “just sensational. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from anybody”. And he was particularly complimentary of Jonny Bairstow, who hit the second-fastest fifty for England in Test cricket, reaching the mark off just 30 balls, to extend his remarkable form. Bairstow hit 136, 162 and 71 not out in his last three innings of the series and is now the leading Test run scorer in the world in 2022, with 774 at an average of 64.5.
“Jonny knows what he’s in the team to do now, and he knows how he wants to play,” Stokes said. “That’s something he’s been able to do in white-ball cricket and he’s playing as if he’s got the colours on. For him to back up an amazing knock at Trent Bridge with a performance in both innings this week