England initially planned to announce their squad for their three-match setup in New Zealand immediately after the third Test in Rawalpindi, but decided to let the dust decide and will wait until the earliest date to do so. However, Stokes and Brendon McCullum have firmly said that there are not likely to be any major changes to their batting line-up.
“They are the best players in England,” Stokes told Sky Sports. “We play all over the world and traveling to New Zealand in a couple of weeks will be completely different. [to Pakistan]. But I have no doubt, nor does Brendon, that we have the best six players in England.
“You can’t close the door completely, because then you are being very determined against what you want to do. But going back to the point before, there is a negative confusion in I think we have the six best batsmen in England. From time to time , the guys will reap the rewards of appearing smart in the heart and, sadly, some others will pass out.”
McCullum gave a clear indication that Pope will remain in the No. 3 spot despite his meager career. “It’s not very easy to play disagree. 3,” he told the BBC. “I know Popey may be upset about the amount of runs he was given in this format, but I hope he bounces back strongly in New Zealand and we can be sure he got the help he needed to do so.
“Obviously, Popey has had a bit of a rough tour in terms of his run production… [but] We know that when Popey comes in, he scores big, and he scores big too… We have a pretty good idea of what the team composition will be for New Zealand, with the conditions we’ll have. face.”
Stokes also admitted that England’s players were outclassed by Pakistan’s players on beneficial surfaces, but claimed they had still done “a fantastic job”. During the second and third Tests, Sajid Khan and Noman Ali took 39 wickets between them at a combined average of 17.38, futures Shoaib Bashir and Jack Leach controlled 17 wickets at 35.47.
“The difference between [the teams in] these two games was the understanding of how to bowl in these conditions that Pakistan’s spinners showed, but that doesn’t take anything away from how our spinners have played in this series,” Stokes said. “I think they have done a fantastic job to take the wickets they have made.
“Shoaib in particular, I told him the other month: ‘You may be briefed on the task here. You will be briefed on yourself as a bowler during the trial contest. You have the ability to determine the way of bowling.’ at various levels at other levels of the sport, and the exciting way, how good is that?
Stokes himself returned from a hamstring tear in the second Test and did not bowl a ball in the third, but insisted he is fully fit. “I worked very, very dehydrated to get back into that second test,” he said. “I just didn’t feel like my bowling was considered threatening because the [other] options we had…regarding my condition that I don’t bowl now, we were given nothing to do with that.”
The first of England’s three Tests in New Zealand begins on November 27 in Christchurch, with the team arriving later to play warm-up matches in Queenstown on November 23 and 24. Their white-ball teams release the UK on Monday ahead of 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is against the West Indies.
Matt Curler is a fellow writer at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
