Hussain Tells Stokes: Return To Old Batting Style
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Nasser Hussain told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast that Ben Stokes should "go back to batting the way he used to and getting runs," adding that England players will now be judged on "runs, wickets and catches and nothing else."
- Stokes averaged just 18.40 with the bat during England's 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia and suffered a groin injury in the final Test, his last appearance coming in January 2026.
- Stokes is set to miss Durham's opening County Championship fixtures against Gloucestershire, Lancashire and Middlesex while recovering from facial surgery, with a possible return against Worcestershire or Kent in May.
- England have failed to beat Australia or India in a five-match series since Brendon McCullum and Stokes took charge in 2022, drawing at home and losing heavily away from home.
- Hussain also called for "absolute clarity" in the leadership's messaging to players and county cricket, questioning what selection criteria will now follow criticism of the team's rigidly aggressive style.
- England sit seventh in the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 standings with six defeats from ten matches, ahead of a home summer against New Zealand from 4 June and Pakistan from 19 August.
Why it matters: Stokes averaged 18.40 in the Ashes and hasn't played since January due to a groin injury and facial surgery, ruling him out of Durham's first month of county action. With England seventh in the WTC and home Tests against New Zealand and Pakistan ahead, Hussain's "runs, wickets and catches" ultimatum is a direct challenge to the McCullum-Stokes project before a defining stretch.
