Ben Stokes, the captain of England, said on Monday that in order to deal with the mental burden of steering England to a 2-2 draw in the Ashes series against Australia, he had leaned on his natural optimism as well as his experience as a player.
He added that this had helped him.
The tourists were denied their first Ashes series victory in England since 2001 when England clinched a thrilling 49-run victory in the final Test at The Oval. England took seven wickets late in the day to deny the visitors their first victory in an Ashes series in England since 2001.
After England had lost the first two Tests of the series, won the third Test, and then missed out on a probable victory in the fourth Test due to rain washing out much of the final two days of play, Stokes talked openly about the pressure he had endured throughout the series. England had lost the first two Tests of the series.
He explained to the reporters that despite the fact that his alarm was set at 8:15 in the morning, he had been waking up at 6:30 on days four and five.
“I recall as a player being in major games, important days in a Test match when it was said that “This day would determine the game itself.” You don’t need to be concerned about it in any way since it’s a player. However, it is understandable that when you are the captain, your thoughts wander to other areas,” he said.
“It just brings a new layer of challenge to the overall competition.”
He said that he thought he had managed the pressure effectively, attributing his success mostly to maintaining a good attitude and drawing on his previous expertise.
“I believe that I have maintained my identity as a person and as a personality within the context of this community. “I am obviously a very positive person, and I try to keep the locker room as positive as I can possibly make it,” he remarked.
“You only learn it via experience. He went on to say that the fact that he has “played a lot of Test cricket” and “been involved in a lot of situations like that as a player and not as a captain actually helped me in some of the big moments within these last three games.”
“So, I’m pretty proud of the way that I’ve handled the pressure situations in some of these games,” the player said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”