Ben Stokes and his England team-mates were snapped enjoying beers and sunbathing before they attempt to salvage the Ashes in the third Test
England’s cricket flops were snapped enjoying beers and sunbathing following their eight-wicket defeat in the second Ashes Test Down Under.
Ben Stokes and his team went 2-0 down in the series after being put to the sword in the pink ball Test in Brisbane. But ahead of the third Test in Adelaide on December 16, England’s players let their hair down by sinking beers.
The England squad headed to Queensland tourist hotspot Noosa, which was scheduled before England’s arrival in Australia. However, despite looking woefully unprepared in the series so far, the plans seemingly did not change.
Captain Stokes and Mark Wood, who has been ruled out of the remainder of the series due to a knee injury, were spotted relaxing on the beach. While Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Will Jacks, Zak Crawley and Gus Atkinson were spotted drinking beer at a bar.
Following their defeat in Brisbane, coach Brendon McCullum claimed the players had “overprepared.” Comments which amused the Aussie press, who fired back with a headline of “’Overprepared’ to the bitter end” alongside pictures of the England players letting their hair down.
McCullum also commented: “We have got a couple of days in Noosa, which will be good to spend a couple of days casually, and let the dust settle on what has been a pretty intense couple of weeks and start to plot and plan our way back into the series.”
England’s break has split opinion, with England legend David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd criticising the decision. He told the BBC: “I don’t think I’d be going to Noosa. I’m a bit old-school, it’d be naughty boy nets. There are definite consequences to this. There always has been, there always will be. There will be consequences and those start with those in charge.”
While former England captain Nasser Hussain wrote in The Athletic: “I can’t understand England’s schedule for the week ahead. [They] will be going into the third Test without playing a single warm-up game against Australian opposition, and that is beyond me.”
However, the other side saw the trip without the pain of being comprehensively beaten in the opening two Test matches of the series.
Former Aussie coach Darren Lehmann said: “Please let the England players enjoy a few days off without the scrutiny, every side has a break mid-tour. When Adelaide comes around let everything resume.”
Australia’s wicketkeeper Alex Carey also defended England’s player’s right to “refresh the batteries”. “The Ashes is very hotly contested, you don’t want to be thinking of cricket every single day of the tour. If you do have a little break it’s probably not a bad time to refresh the batteries,” he said.
“It’s a pretty big series with lots of time between games. The Australia cricket team gets to go home for a few days and be with the families, so touring parties have got to find time to fill in those little windows.
“It’s totally up to the touring groups to find ways to take your mind off cricket for a little bit. It’s not new stuff the English guys are doing, having a break. And if the media likes to follow certain teams around, that’s totally up to them to do.
“We understand that comes with the privilege of playing the game. We’re in a pretty lucky position that we’re playing professional sport and people want to follow the journey.”