‘You can call England rubbish’: Ben Stokes’ brutal statement ahead of Ashes 2025-26 Brisbane Test

England National Cricket Team captain Ben Stokes has dropped a bold statement, saying that the critics can call the English team "rubbish," but branding them "arrogant might be a little bit too far."

After stating that England are not an arrogant team, Ben Stokes also revealed why they decided not to release the main players for the Tour Match against Australia's Prime Minister's XI.

I'd rather words like 'rubbish', but 'arrogant', I'm not so sure about that - Ben Stokes

The Test series opener of the Ashes 2025-26 was hosted by Perth Stadium, and both England and Australia displayed a great brand of cricket, which the crowd thoroughly enjoyed.

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However, the match got finished inside two days, and with 847 deliveries being bowled and it became the second-shortest completed Test in Australia. Despite the game finishing early, the ICC gave a "very good" verdict to the pitch on the offer.

Batting first, the English team were bundled out for 172 in 32.5 and then they bowled out Australia for 132 in just 45.2 overs, before scoring 164 runs and setting a target of 205.

Then came something that England were not prepared for as Travis Head opened the innings and left Ben Stokes shell-shocked, steering his team to an 8-wicket win.

England faced heavy criticism after the loss, with many calling them arrogant, and Ben Stokes addressed this while speaking for the first time since the conclusion of the Perth Test.

"Look, you can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want. We didn't have the Test match that we wanted to. We were great in passages of that game… but I think arrogant might be a little bit too far," Ben Stokes said, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

"But that's okay. We'll take the rough with the smooth. I'd rather words like 'rubbish', but 'arrogant', I'm not so sure about that."

The conditions are going to be completely different from what we are going to have coming up - Ben Stokes

The Three Lions had a great opportunity to play a pink-ball match against Australia's Prime Ministers' XI before the Brisbane Test, but they decided to send only three unused squad members for the game.

Ben Stokes justified their decision, saying that the conditions in Canberra and Brisbane are going to be completely different. He elaborated:

"I do understand it. We have a pink-ball match coming up in Brisbane, and we have an opportunity to play some pink-ball cricket. When you look at it just like that, I don't want to say it makes sense, but I totally understand it [that view].

"But there's obviously a lot more to it than just that. There's where it is, in Canberra, which is a different state from Brisbane. The conditions are going to be completely different to what we are going to have coming up.

"You take all the factors into consideration, the pros and cons, whatever it may be. We then discuss that and decide what we think is the best preparation. We have a few more days off than we planned after that Test. We had to go away and ask how we use these next few days wisely in order to be prepared for what it will be like in Brisbane.

"We schedule everything as if the Test match is going to go five days. It didn't go five days, so we had three days planned of training, and that obviously had to change. That's why now we have a longer build-up for this pink-ball game."

We did some amazing things in that Test match - Ben Stokes

Ben Stokes was also proud of his team's efforts in the Perth Test and added that they have identified the things they could have done better. He said:

"We did some amazing things in that Test match. The way we bowled in the first innings, and we were [effectively] 100 for 1, and put a score on the board that we felt was definitely defendable.

"We all know, and have looked back on it, that there were moments in that game where we could have been a lot better to help us gain even more of an advantage. The important thing we need to do as a team and individuals is learn from it. We have identified those moments, spoken about them as a group, that's what we need to do."

Also Read: Ravi Bishnoi's next IPL team leaked by Yuzvendra Chahal on Instagram LIVE