Australia women’s cricket team captain Alyssa Healy has slammed England vice-captain Harry Brook for leaving his captain Ben Stokes to shoulder all the blame and not taking accountability for his failures in the ongoing Ashes 2025-26 series.
England are 0-2 down in the five-Test series, and Harry Brook had scored just 98 runs in two Tests with one fifty. He was dismissed in the second Test in Brisbane, which was played with the pink ball, shockingly in both innings.
Stokes has also failed to get his team out of sticky situations, and the much-discussed Bazball strategy is being criticized for having little effect against elite opponents.
Amidst the growing criticism surrounding England's Ashes difficulties, Alyssa Healy defended Ben Stokes, claiming the captain is bearing too much of the blame.
"I actually think Ben Stokes shoulders too much of the accountability for everything. I have full praise for him. He stands there at the end of every Test match that they lose and says, 'I'll take accountability for this, this, [and] this. I did this wrong, I did that wrong," Healy said on the Willow Talk podcast.
Healy also questioned the lack of accountability inside England's locker room, claiming that too much blame is being placed on Stokes while others go unchecked. She argued that senior players should publicly own their mistakes rather than relying solely on the captain to handle every difficult situation, citing a concerning trend.
"How about taking a little bit of the load off your captain? 'Hi, my name's Harry Brook, I played a shocking shot twice in this Test match (Brisbane), and I put our team under the pump unnecessarily twice'. I've never heard him come out and say that. There's your captain standing there sticking up for him, saying, 'I did this wrong, I did that wrong.' For me, that screams trouble, and that's creating a bubble environment that he and Brendon [McCullum] are trying to empower their players to be good enough to be out there and compete,” she stated.
Ben Stokes has made 77 runs in four innings and has taken eight wickets with his bowling in the ongoing Ashes series. The third Test of the series will be played in Adelaide from December 17 onwards.
