DOUBLE OR QUITS
If we don’t believe we can win both Ashes and World Cup, it’s pointless turning up
The 50- over World Cup winner was bursting with confidence just before he boarded a plane back to the UK after the 3- 0 Twenty20 whitewash of South Africa.
It was a series dominated by the bat of Dawid Malan, with others chipping in along the way, proving to Stokes there is little to stop England when they are on song.
And with the Test side also unearthing batting talent such as Zak Crawley to complement the likes of Stokes and Jofra Archer, who will be touring Australia for the first time, a bumper year could end with two of the biggest prizes.
“We’re very confident in our ability,” said Stokes. “If we don’t think the World Cup and Ashes are achievable then it’s pretty pointless turning up.
“We concentrate on ourselves and put pressure on ourselves rather than look at the opposition and see what they have to offer.
“We know if we play our best game of cricket we can beat most teams which isn’t an arrogant thing to say, it’s where we’re at, at the moment.
“The big challenge is just making sure we stay fit, especially throughout the lockdown and quarantine periods we have to go through now.
“There’s a massive year of cricket coming up again and hopefully I’ll be able to play a full part in it. But it is about trying to stay in the moment as much as possible.”
After England moved to No1 in the rankings, Stokes can see the T20 side developing in much the same way the 50- over team did before their eventual success, but believes there is much more to come because the first- choice side is only now starting to take shape and play together more regularly.
“We always try positive route,” added.
“This team is not about taking it cautiously and we maybe fell on that in the first game, which is understandable because we haven’t played too much together.
“But as the series got deeper we showed what we are about and it’s great to see some guys playing so freely in a short the he
FORCE IS
Ben Stokes says England can defeat most teams if WITH US
they perform to their best
space of time. It’s a scary thing to think about where this team could go when we’ve played some games together. It is a familiar feeling because the 50- over team built a squad where everyone was pushing each other.” Stokes left the tour with a bandaged hand after cutting it on the digital boundary display that clearly was not the minimum 2.7 metres away from the rope. He said: “It is something that should be looked at.”
And after England met up with match referee Andy Pycroft on Wednesday, that is what will happen for the ODI series, with the rope brought further in.