Ahead of England’s white-ball series against West Indies, star all-rounder Ben Stokes has broken his silence on the criticism that the Three Lions face for their practice methods. The England cricket team has been receiving huge slamming of late, following their poor form. Some former players and experts even claimed that the England players were more focussed on playing golf than cricket. Such remarks were made during the team’s visit to India for a five-match ODI series and three T20Is in January this year. While the hosts had thrashed England 4-1 in the ODI series, they clean swept the guests in the T20I series that followed.

In an even poorer performance, England ended up exiting the 2025 Champions Trophy from the group stage itself after losing all the three matches played. This even led to Jos Buttler stepping down from the role of England’s white-ball captaincy which has now been handed to Harry Brook.

“When you hear comments saying we don’t train hard enough, we’re more bothered about golf, we don’t work hard enough it’s just complete and utter (rubbish),” England’s Test captain Stokes told Sky Sports.

“You’re not going to be able to be an international sportsman for a long period of time if you don’t have a work ethic and everyone that walks into the Test team, the white-ball team, their work ethic is incredible. They’re professional athletes, it’s their job.

“There’s reasons as to why we do things in the way that we do it and those reasons are for us to speak about together in the dressing room. There is a reason to everything that we do.

“What we try and do is take any extra added pressure off the shoulders of people. When you see us doing certain things that people might think why are we doing that, there’s a reason as to why we do it.”

Ben Stokes had called time on his white-ball career before making a comeback for the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. He has not been named in England’s upcoming white-ball series vs West Indies that will be led by Brook. He, however, remains fully active as a player in Tests.

“In terms of my role as a player, that full seamer, batting at six, trying to dominate every situation I find myself whether I’ve got a bat or ball in my hand is what I want to get back doing out on the field, on the biggest stage. I know I’ve done it before, it’s something I’ve very confident in myself I can do,” Stokes said.