England Test captain Ben Stokes has issued an impassioned plea amid turmoil in England’s cricket set-up. Following their 2025–26 Ashes debacle, many have called for the resignations of head coach Brendon McCullum and England cricket boss Rob Key, and Stokes’ latest message has attempted to allay some of the fans’ fears.
The England captain took to Instagram late on Monday night and described the Ashes as the toughest period of his captaincy journey. England were thumped 4-1 by an Australian side who were not in full form.
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Additionally, England’s antics in Noosa – where they took a mid-series break to drink and party while they finished in the series – raised serious questions about the team’s culture.
The backlash to the Noosa controversy, coupled with yet another overseas series defeat, was severe. Many called for the end of ‘Baseball’ and demanded accountability from Rob Key. In the aftermath of the series, England Cricket installed a review board in the team and also ordered the players to be gagged and told them not to speak to the media about the Ashes.
Stokes’ Instagram message delved into his passion for England cricket and his belief that McCullum, Key and himself are the right people to take the team forward. He emphasized that their primary goal is to bring joy to the fans and assured them that the team has learned from its mistakes.
“Being the captain of England is the greatest honor a player can receive and I don’t take it for granted. It has its positives and negatives; it makes you laugh, it makes you cry. It completely and utterly consumes you and sometimes feels like the only thing in your life. The last three months have undoubtedly been the hardest part of my captaincy journey. It’s been through many different paths, and it’s also taken me through many different paths. Stokes.
“Baz, Rob and I have the passion and desire to move this team forward. We’re going to give you everything we’ve got. We know we’ve made mistakes along the way and learned from them – you learn more from failure than success. I’ve learned a lot about myself, but the most important thing I want the fans to know is this,” he added.
“I love cricket. I love this team. I love being England captain and I can bring so much more to that role. I’m so happy to be doing it with Baz and Rob. We all appreciate every person who supports us. We do what we do for many reasons, but one of them is to bring happiness and a sense of pride to our fans that we can see it all in June. Test summer,” concluded the England Test captain.
Stokes’ post went viral on the internet, garnering 60,000 likes in just 7 hours. Comments on the post were mostly in favor of the passionate England captain, whose message struck a chord with fans.
“You’ve got real grit @stokesy and your resilience and strength of character has only grown as you’ve captained the team through tough times – we want you to keep going and believe we’ll win the Ashes next time,” one fan commented on his post.
England begin their Test season on June 4 with a three-match series against New Zealand. He is currently ranked 7th in the World Test Championship points table with 3 wins and 6 losses from 10 matches.
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Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
24 March 2026 08:16 IST
