The Ashes: Stuart Broad on Ben Stokes’ England captaincy, Brendon McCullum’s future and Jacob Bethell’s first Test ton | Cricket News

I have worked for an Australian company throughout this Ashes series and the respect their fans and ex-players have for Ben Stokes is incredible.

Effort, heart, warrior-mode – what Australians want from their sportspeople you get from Stokes every time and they will say they wish he was in their side.

But I don’t think he was tactically at his best this winter; it was probably the worst series I have seen him have as captain.

However, I always believe the captain is only as good as their bowlers. They can make a captain look pretty silly if you set a field and they don’t bowl to it.

That has been the frustration for me throughout. The bowlers have not been able to consistently hit any sort of area in conditions that were so in their favour.

Hitting the top of off stump and doing the basics well was what you needed. They haven’t done that and have made the captain look a little bit daft.

Brydon Carse opening the bowling was never in the plans, but then there were injuries to Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson.

Maybe Josh Tongue doesn’t like the feeling of the new ball but I thought Carse bowled too long with it, too long spells with it.

He couldn’t hold length at all and allowed Australia to get off to flying starts. Then you are on the back foot.

Stokes, as our best line and length bowler, under-bowled himself – he should have started sessions to set the tone – and Joe Root’s spin was under-bowled as well.

So, it wasn’t Stokes’ best series but he didn’t have a bowling attack that could execute the plans and dare I say – as I’m not sure you can feel this – he wanted it too much.

Of course you want it, you care so deeply about this, but maybe he applied too much pressure on himself to deliver. He looked stressed throughout the whole thing.

‘McCullum and ECB must be aligned or part ways’

As for the coach, Brendon McCullum, if I was CEO of English cricket – which I have no interest in being – I would invite him in, probably with a glass of wine, and say, ‘Baz, tell me how you see it going forward? What are your different styles of play and what personnel would you like involved?’.

If they really didn’t sit with how I believe the team should move forward, then there is no way of going forward. I would lay it on McCullum first, rather than say ‘I want to see this’ as I want to hear from him and what the adaptation will be.

I think it is important as a coach and player to do it your way. Then you are authentic to what you believe. But the best sports coaches adapt to the players they have.

When Baz came in, he had Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jimmy Anderson, myself, to bed messages in. Players experienced enough to say ‘I know what I am doing and can move it forward’.

When you are giving those messages to younger players who don’t know their game as well and are still finding their feet, then maybe things are harder to implement.

I didn’t see McCullum tearing strips off players but I only had a short 18 months under him where he didn’t necessarily need to as we had some brilliant results.

I don’t think that is his natural nature but that doesn’t mean a batting coach can’t go in and say, ‘what’s the game plan here?’

‘England must be smarter – and Bethell showed the way’

We hear about playing with freedom but that doesn’t mean don’t play smart. Jamie Smith’s shot in the first innings at the SCG was terrible cricket.

Look at the way Jacob Bethell batted in his hundred. Outside of the highlights of his boundaries, he defended and left the ball – he was on 99 for 20 minutes or so. It was a proper Test innings that left Ricky Ponting purring.

And for me the accountability is not for a coach to come up to me and tell me off, that is a team-mate thing.

If I was bowling a bad spell, Jimmy Anderson would say ‘your knees are not firing up, you body language is terrible’. Alastair Cook would say ‘I need more from you’.

The coaching telling off never works. Chris Silverwood, from memory, showed the batters all their dismissals the last time we were here in Australia which didn’t work in any way, shape or form.

Ultimately, this tour feels like a real missed opportunity.

Australia have had an experienced team that have got over the line in pressure scenarios when England have melted. They have shown no awareness of game situations – but that comes with experience and the more you play.

It’s clear they have to find a spinner they book in and give experience to on a lot of different surfaces but I think the top seven batters stay as is.

However, you can’t talk a good game and then deliver what England have delivered here. I have no doubt there will be conversations about adapting the style.

Stuart Broad was speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

Ashes series in Australia 2025-26