Tim Paine calls England 'below-average cricket team’

England Test captain Ben Stokes’ dressing room speech continues to make headlines as former Australian captain Tim Paine slammed him for his remarks about his team.

Stokes’ dressing room speech during the Ashes 2023 went viral after England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) released a documentary series titled, ‘Ashes 2023 | Our Take.’

“Everything we’ve done up until now isn’t going to stop because we haven’t managed to win the urn back,” Ben Stokes was seen telling his teammates.

“The reward for our work isn’t what we get but what we become. And what we have managed to do is we’ve managed to become a sports team that will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket,” he said.

He was apparently referring to their aggressive approach in Test cricket England adopted under his captaincy and Brendon McCullum’s coaching.

However, an Australian media outlet took a dig at his speech as Australia managed to retain the Ashes after the series was levelled 2-2.

Australian media outlet Fox Cricket took a sarcastic dig at his speech in the caption of the story it shared on X.

“…right, yeah, sure,” Fox Cricket wrote in the post.

Ben Stokes was quick to reply, saying, “Said this to the team who had watched it rain for 2 days when we had our foot on your throats, just tried to cheer up the disappointment tbh,but anyways rent free and all that.”

Now, former Australian skipper Tim Pain has reacted to his dressing room speech, saying England were not doing anything extraordinary contrary to popular belief.

Reacting to the England skipper’s speech, he said, “I think it was taken slightly out of context because he was talking in a changing room and it was a bigger speech, so I will say that.”

However, he suggested that England should realise that they are a ‘below-average’ Test team.

“It’s just this continued belief that they’re completely changing the game and they’re doing this amazing stuff and everyone’s going to remember it. They’re not. You’re coming dead last in the World Test Championship,” he said.

“You’re not going to be a team that everyone remembers watching and you’re not doing anything outrageously good that we haven’t seen before. You’re an average cricket team. (Actually) you’re at the moment, a below-average cricket team and I think they need to get their head around that a little bit,” Tim Paine added.

It is pertinent to mention that England sit at the bottom of the World Test Championship (WTC) table for the 2023-2025 cycle, having lost six out of their 10 Test matches.

They have won three games while one game resulted in a draw.