Ashes 2025-26: Healy questions England’s leadership dynamics as pressure mounts on Stokes

Published - 10 Dec 2025, 18:50 IST | Updated - 10 Dec 2025, 18:54 IST

Australian cricketer Alyssa Healy believes England captain Ben Stokes is overburdening himself during the Ashes 2025-26. With a must-win match approaching, she has urged Stokes’ teammates, particularly vice-captain Harry Brook, to take on greater responsibility.

England trail Australia 2-0 in the series, and despite having opportunities to swing the second Test in Brisbane in their favour, the visitors faltered. Poor shot selection and an inability to adapt to the pitch conditions led to a batting collapse, allowing Australia to cruise to an eight-wicket victory and extend their lead.

“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.’,” said Healy on the Willow Talk podcast.

“How about taking a little bit of 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 added.

Naseer urges Stokes to begin tough conversations with team

It has become a pattern of Bazball that the team’s identity heavily revolves around the towering personas of Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, whether by design or by default. Under their aura, the rest of the players have often diminished their own presence. Healy is not alone in sensing the strain on Stokes, even his former teammate James Anderson has expressed concerns that the England skipper could eventually snap under the pressure.

“If I was an English fan I’d be worried because that’s going to come crashing down at some point in time. If I was his teammate right now, and I genuinely cared about my captain, I’d do something about it because it’s not good enough,” said Healy.

“It looked like Ben had a lot on his plate on the field – he was the one coming up with the ideas. I didn’t see many chats between Ben Stokes and Harry Brook, he’s vice captain. You’d expect that little bit more. “Ollie Pope was vice captain, I didn’t see him going up to Ben. I saw a little bit of Jofra chatting to Stokes but, generally, it was Ben on his own – that’s how it looked from the outside,” said Anderson on the BBC’s Tailenders podcast.