Stokes: Australia be warned; there’s extra to return from England
B
en Stokes has instructed his England gamers to ensure Sunday’s triumph at Headingley is “just the start” of the last word Ashes comeback and warned Australia: “We can still get better.”
England kept their hopes of winning back the Urn alive with a three-wicket victory in Leeds, Harry Brook scoring an important 75 earlier than bowlers Chris Woakes and Mark Wood mixed with bat in hand to finish a chase of 251.
The win halves England’s collection deficit to 2-1 and means Stokes’s males are nonetheless in with a shout of changing into solely the second crew ever to return from 2-0 right down to win the Ashes, with Tests at Old Trafford and the Kia Oval to return.
Headingley produced one more match of to-and-fro in line with the theme set at Edgbaston and Lord’s, and Stokes spoke of his aid presently popping out on the correct aspect of a tense finale.
“If you look at the first two games in terms of how tight they were, getting over the line in another tight game can mentally help, knowing that it’s another close game, but we’ve got over the line in this one,” Stokes stated.
“The first two didn’t go our way. If you sort of flip it around and we didn’t win this one and it’s tight again, you would think, ‘It’s just not meant to be’. We’re obviously over the moon that we won this one, but it’s just the start of what we know we need to do.”
England’s bowlers had been excellent in Leeds, with Wood and Woakes excellent on their returns to the line-up and Stuart Broad additionally persevering with his high quality collection.
However, the house prime order failed to fireplace and Stokes’s aspect had been once more wasteful within the discipline, with Jonny Bairstow’s kind behind the stumps a specific concern. “I still think we can be better,” Stokes added. “We can be better in certain areas, and that’s all we can do, keep trying to be better and better and as clear as we possibly can as a team. People always seem to have an answer after the fact. I don’t think anyone will ever crack it, that’s why it’s such a great game.”
There is a nine-day hole till the beginning of the Fourth Test at Old Trafford, the place James Anderson is predicted to return again into the aspect on his house floor.
Australia even have choice complications to ponder, after all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, deputising for Cameron Green, scored a century on his first Test outing in 4 years.
Opening batter David Warner made simply 5 runs throughout two innings, each ended by long-time nemesis Broad, and, intriguingly, Australia captain Pat Cummins didn’t rule out the likelihood that he might be the participant to make approach if Green is match to return.
“We’ll keep all our options open,” Cummins stated, when requested about Marsh changing Warner on the prime of the order. “We should have a full roster, we’ll have a look at the wicket and have a chat and work out the best XI.”