Article
Shane Watson says ‘No’ to Stokes arrival for Ashes
By Aditya Pratap - Nov 29, 2017 3:01 pm
Views 0

Retired all-rounder Shane Watson believes Ben Stokes should not take a part in the ongoing Ashes series in Australia, who is going through a provisional suspension after a brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol.

In September, Stokes along with Alex Hales found guilty of doing physical assault to a local citizen outside a club, which forced the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to suspend him from the national team.

Watson quoted to Sydney Morning, “I don’t think he should be able to come and play. There needs to be a precedent set, even for his own benefit, to be able to learn from his mistakes that he has and realize that there are consequences for your actions at times. The footage that you see – there’s no hiding nowadays with video phones, with CCTV footage.”

However, former Aussie all-rounder thinks Stokes will learn from this incident and it will help him to grow as a person. “The only way you learn as a person really is when there are strong consequences to mistakes you make, and you have to learn from and get better. There’s no doubt he’ll come back even stronger from it, but you do have to learn from your mistakes at times,” he added.

Talking about England’s situation in this Ashes series, former captain thinks it will be hard for them to come back after a massive 10-wicket defeat in Brisbane.

Watto quoted “There’s no doubt that England are down on confidence because he’s (Stokes) not in the team. The quality and calibre and player that he is, the impact that he has with both bat and ball and also in the field, that’s a huge loss for England. It’s impossible to be able to fill that void.”

“There’s no doubt that England are going to be trying to show the bravado that they have, but it’s just not going to be the same without him in the team,” he concluded.

The second Test will undergo in Adelaide from December 2, which will be the first Day-Night Ashes Test.