{"id":499961,"date":"2025-10-14T23:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T23:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/499961\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T23:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T23:01:19","slug":"england-legend-alastair-cook-on-the-big-ashes-gamble-captain-ben-stokes-should-not-make-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/499961\/","title":{"rendered":"England legend Alastair Cook on the big Ashes gamble captain Ben Stokes should NOT make in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

By LAWRENCE BOOTH, CRICKET CORRESPONDENT<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 12:24 EDT, 14 October 2025 | Updated: 12:49 EDT, 14 October 2025 <\/p>\n

Alastair Cook<\/a> says Ollie Pope should start the Ashes<\/a> at No 3\u00a0\u2013 and believes the selection of\u00a0Jacob Bethell would represent a \u2018big gamble\u2019 as England try to win back the urn for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n

Cook, who played a central role in their last triumph down under\u00a0\u2013 a 3\u20131 win in 2010-11, when he racked up 766 runs at an average of 127 \u2013 described the debate as \u2018quite an easy decision\u2019, and says Ben Stokes<\/a> and Brendon McCullum should stick with a player who has been there from the start of the Bazball era.<\/p>\n

\u2018I would bat Ollie Pope at three,\u2019 he said. \u2018You\u2019ve got someone who\u2019s been part of this build-up for three or four years. He\u2019s captained the side and played some extraordinary innings for England. He knows how to score hundreds in first-class cricket.<\/p>\n

\u2018If you get rid of him now, that changes the whole dynamic of what they\u2019ve built up over the last few years, how settled they\u2019ll feel for that top seven. If you get rid of him now, the damage you do to Pope\u2019s confidence\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018And if it doesn\u2019t go well for Bethell\u2026 At 21, he\u2019s an incredibly talented player, and we started to see that at the back end of last year, but that\u2019s in white-ball cricket.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It would be a big gamble, because if that doesn\u2019t work out, how do you go back to someone you just got rid of?\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Becky <\/p>\n

Becky Ives (left) and Alastair Cook will be part of the TNT Sports’ Ashes coverage<\/p>\n

\"Cook <\/p>\n

Cook believes Ollie Pope should keep his spot at No 3 for England Down Under\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cook will be part of TNT Sports\u2019 coverage of the five-match series, which begins on November 21, with the broadcasters opting for a hybrid model combining punditry and commentary from the venues\u00a0\u2013 where Cook will be joined by fellow former England stars Graeme Swann, Steven Finn and Ebony Rainford-Brent \u2013\u00a0with commentary from back in the UK.<\/p>\n

The in-venue reporting will be led by Becky Ives, a lifelong cricket fan who has made her name as a football presenter, while the UK-based commentators also come from outside the sport, with Alastair Eykyn more familiar to fans of rugby union and Rob Hatch well known in the world of cycling.<\/p>\n

Scott Young, the executive vice-president of WBD Sports Europe, who own TNT Sports, said the plans to have some of commentators based in the UK was not the \u2018cheap\u2019 option.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018The way the commentary\u00a0booths are set up, you won\u2019t know where they are.\u2019<\/p>\n

Watch TNT Sports\u2019 live exclusive coverage of The Ashes – alongside every Quilter Nations Series match, live Premier League and UEFA club football and more – on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n England legend Alastair Cook on the big Ashes gamble captain Ben Stokes should NOT make in Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By LAWRENCE BOOTH, CRICKET CORRESPONDENT Published: 12:24 EDT, 14 October 2025 | Updated: 12:49 EDT, 14 October 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[136668,23382,186,43331,1406,92,393,93,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-499961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-alastair-cook","9":"tag-ashes","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-ben-stokes","12":"tag-cricket","13":"tag-dailymail","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115375013379213736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}