Kevin Pietersen feels absence of Ben Stokes will hurt England in the Ashes

Former England captain, Kevin Pietersen has opined that the absence of Ben Stokes might cost England the 2017-18 Ashes. With the regal tournament less than a month away, Pietersen feels that England is a frail side. The Ashes begins on November 23 at The Gabba, Brisbane.

England will be going into the 2017-18 edition of the tournament as the defending champions. Pieterson expressed his scepticism of the viability of his home team in a tournament as fiercely competitive as the Ashes. He also went on to stress the importance of bonding as teammates to be able to work as a unit.

KP isn’t convinced

He offered a valid criticism on the current England team saying, “I think without [Joe] Root or Cook, that batting order is incredibly weak, incredibly inexperienced, and with Stokes maybe not going, I mean, it’s even worse. The opening batting with Cook, that worries me,” he was quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“No 3 worries me, I think Root should bat at three, five worries me, six will worry me too if Stokes doesn’t go. I mean there’s a lot of numbers in that batting order. I’ve been in Australia this week, and they are very confident of their chances and they talk of some very big gaps in the English team,” KP added.

Pietersen went on to speak about the feisty all-rounder, Ben Stokes. “People say that ‘one bloke doesn’t make a team’, well, I mean one bloke who bowls 140kph, get important wickets, can hit 100 off 70 balls, can hit 200 off 100 balls in a Test match, and also, more importantly, catches everything at slip off the spinner, is a massive player. A massive, massive player,” he said.

Bonding is extremely important in a team

Having been a part of the England team for nearly a decade, the 37-year-old holds team bonding in high regard.

“When we had the great tour Down Under in 2010-11, we had the most incredible couple of nights out at the start of that tour, which brought the team so close together. I know that it sounds so stupid, but if you go and get hammered as a team on a night out — as senior and junior players — so long as you don’t do something ridiculously stupid, the bonds you can create there are better than any ridiculous sessions you can do in the forest in Germany. Those are the little bits and pieces of cricketing nous and sense of understanding a team that were good on that tour but horrendous in 2013-14.”

However, the 37-year old conceded that knowing the limits is essential and said, “Do whatever you want, but don’t get caught drinking at 2 o’clock on the morning before a game, don’t get caught fighting in the streets, don’t get caught doing things you shouldn’t be doing before the games and, in particular, before training days, because those always stood me in good stead for when I went into battle.”