‘That bubble will start to crack’: Healy’s advice to the English from behind enemy lines

Australian women’s captain Alyssa Healy has called on besieged England vice captain Harry Brook to do more to take the load off struggling skipper Ben Stokes.

As England’s underperforming squad continued their controversial mid-tour break in Noosa, Stokes received support from an unlikely ally behind enemy lines, who urged other players to do more for their captain.

Healy said England’s “bubble environment” was at risk of bursting unless more was done to take the pressure off Stokes, who is staring down the barrel of the unwanted record of losing an Ashes series in the shortest timeframe ever.

Healy’s comments echo those of England great James Anderson, who said senior players were not doing enough in the field to help their captain.

The Australians have been careful not to poke the bear by making intemperate remarks about England’s plight, but Healy, whose husband Mitchell Starc has ripped the visitors apart with both bat and ball, was frank in her assessment of where it has gone wrong.

She saved her most brutal critique for batting boy wonder Brook, whose reputation has taken a hit this series – losing his wicket at key moments to extravagant shots in each game so far.

Despite his seniority in the team, Brook is yet to speak to media since the squad arrived in Australia, though his turn may come next week in Adelaide. As England’s white-ball captain, Brook shouldered more media duties on the tour to New Zealand immediately before the Ashes.

“I actually think Ben Stokes shoulders too much of the accountability for everything,” Healy said on the Willow Talk podcast.

“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’.

“I’ve never heard any of the other teammates say that. How about taking a little bit of load off your captain? ‘Hi, my name’s Harry Brook, I played a shocking shot twice this Test match and I put our team under the pump unnecessarily twice’. I’ve never heard him come out and say that.

“It’s, ‘That’s the way I play, I’m probably going to get out doing that every now and then.’

“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 him and Brendon [McCullum] are trying to empower their players to be good enough to be out there and compete.”

“But that bubble will start to crack at some point – Ben Stokes will start to crack at some point. 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.

“If I was an English fan I’d be worried because that’s going to come crashing down at some point in time.”

Stokes has shown signs of losing patience with his teammates, telling the BBC there was no place for “weak men” in his dressing room moments after their loss in Brisbane.

Anderson, who was part of England’s “Bazball” revolution until he retired in 2024, said Brook needed to help Stokes more.

“It looked like Ben had a lot on his plate on the field – he was the one coming up with the ideas,” Anderson said on the BBC’s Tailenders podcast.

“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.”

Australian vice captain and in-form keeper Alex Carey said he understands why England have planned a mid-tour break in Noosa during the nine-day gap between the second and third Tests. Such holidays are not uncommon for a series of this length. The Australians had a similar break during the 2023 Ashes in England, and have even cleared players to travel to the Maldives on tours of India.

The England squad will travel to Adelaide on Saturday and resume training on Sunday as they hunt a win to keep alive the fight for the urn.

“The Ashes is a very hotly contested contest – you don’t want to be thinking cricket every single day of the tour,” Carey said. “If you do have a break, it’s not a bad time to refresh your batteries.”

Meanwhile, Australia have added skipper Pat Cummins to a 15-man squad for the third Test.

Cummins’ impending return strengthens an Australian attack that has had little trouble claiming 20 wickets in each of the first two Tests.

It means selectors will be able to field their most-experienced, and arguably strongest, attack of the series at Adelaide Oval, which is staging a rare day Test.

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