"Rent free and all that" - Ben Stokes fires back at Australian outlet after being ridiculed for 'people were lucky to witness us' speech

England Test captain Ben Stokes has hit out at an Australian news outlet after being ridiculed for a statement. The veteran allrounder had made the comments during last year's Ashes at home.

The comments were shown during a documentary, released by the ECB recently. The five-match Test series between England and Australia had ended at 2-2. As a result, Australia retained the Ashes since they had won the previous series. In fact, Australia have the urn with them since 2017-18.

The visitors began the series on a stunning note by winning the first two games and were agonizingly close to registering a first Test series win on English soil in 22 years. However, England did well to win two of the last three games while drawing another to draw level in the series. Even in the drawn fourth Test in Manchester, England were in the driver's seat but their hopes of winning the game were dashed by rain.

Ben Stokes' comments came during the fourth Test. As the England players were disappointed after rain ended their chances of reclaiming the urn, Ben Stokes tried to motivate them with a moving speech.

"Everything we’ve done up until now isn’t going to stop because we haven’t managed to win the urn back," Stokes said.

"The reward for our work isn’t what we get but what we become. And what we have managed to do is we’ve managed to become a sports team that will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket."

Ben Stokes hits back:

Ben Stokes' boastful comments have not gone down well with many, especially the Australian cricket fraternity. The Australian news outlet called the comment from the England captain bizarre and highlighted his team's poor results in Tests in recent times, especially in the Ashes.

England have not won an Ashes series since 2015 and have also not won a Test series on Australian soil in 15 years. Since the beginning of 2023, England have managed to win only 4 of the 11 Tests. The news outlet shared the article on X with the caption: "...right, yeah, sure."

Ben Stokes noticed the article and decided to respond to it. The England superstar clarified that he just wanted to cheer up his teammates with his speech before taking a dig at the news outlet, writing: "Said this to the team who had watched it rain for 2 days when we had our foot on your throats, just tried to cheer up the disappointment tbh,but anyways rent free and all that 🫡"

Said this to the team who had watched it rain for 2 days when we had our foot on your throats, just tried to cheer up the disappointment tbh,but anyways rent free and all that 🫡 https://t.co/ULRZ4WITOq

— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) July 3, 2024