The new England captain and coach has taken an aggressive approach in the Test arena, which has been dubbed.buzzball“, and has chased down impressive goals with great batting style and aggressive bowling spells to win Tests against New Zealand and India in the last two months.
But they were dealt a blow by an innings and 12 runs in the first of the three Test series at Lord’s as South Africa’s bowlers reigned supreme, restricting England to 165 in their first innings and then bowling them out for 149 on Friday. done.
Stokes, however, said there would be no change when the second Test at Old Trafford begins next Thursday.
“Not at all. You know, I see captains in front of me and they were always criticized at times for the way they wanted to play, and that’s just part and parcel of the job.
“We know very well that when we demonstrate the abilities that we are capable of, we can go out and put on an incredible performance, as was seen in the first four games.
“It’s not purely a wakeup call or anything like that. It was unfortunate that we are unable to execute the way we want to play this week,” Stokes said.
McCullum echoed the captain, dismissing suggestions that England’s batsmen could be too aggressive against a strong bowling line-up.
“I don’t think so. I think they were maybe a touch timid. We approach the game the way we want to play, with a clear mindset about what we want to play and we want to be the best version of ourselves. It’s always been won’t work,” he said.
The former New Zealand batsman insisted, “As we said at the time, you have to gear up for the ride. It doesn’t bode well in times like these, but we will come back strong.”
“I think we weren’t able to attack when we got the opportunity. Then we got a few balls that got rid of some of our best players. That’s cricket. If you have a winner, you will have a loser. , and South Africa deserved to win.”