Talismanic England captain Ben Stokes wants his charges to employ an ultra-positive mindset for the next cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.
England’s ‘Bazball’ approach generated more headlines than wins in the 2023/25 Test season, with Brendon McCullum’s team winning just 11 out of 22 Tests to end up fifth in the league standings. But their summer represents a clean slate to work with.
Speaking to The Guardian before hosting a highly anticipated five-Test series against India, Stokes continued to push the positive cricket narrative.
“The word I love and what I’ve tried to instil in this team is ‘dominance’ and ‘dominate’,” said the 33-year-old.
“Whatever situation we find ourselves in, that’s the word I want to be at the front of our heads. I want this team to dominate series, to dominate days, dominate every session. It’s not always going to happen like that, but that’s the mindset I want us to go out with every single day, so everything is aimed towards winning.”
England last topped the Test rankings back in 2011, a height Stokes knows this fresh team has the capability to reach.
“When the rankings came out, I did send Baz and Keys [Rob Key] a text saying: ‘We’ve got one more place to go’,” he added.
“Baz uses this phrase a lot: ‘We’re starting from a place of strength’. For us to be able to build on that, and everyone knows that we’ve got improvement to do. It’s very exciting that we are where we are as a team at the moment. Everyone understands and knows we’ve definitely got another level to go to.
“If we win what we’ve got coming up, the likelihood is that we will be at the top of that leaderboard. There’s no doubt in my mind we have the ability to be that team.”
England are currently playing a once-off four-day Test against visiting Zimbabwe at Lord’s in preparation for the India tour.
