Ben Stokes hits back at England's critics after Trent Bridge mauling against South Africa

The sheer volume of criticism that came England’s way following their 340-run defeat by South Africa at Trent Bridge last week meant Ben Stokes was too angry to drill down into the exact detail of what was said and by whom.

Among the accusations fired at England following a result that leaves the series level at 1-1 ahead of this week’s third Investec Test at The Oval, the most stinging came from two former England captains.

Michael Vaughan said the way the team batted showed “disrespect” for Test cricket. Nasser Hussain lamented the “rubbish brand of cricket” that has seen England lose eight of their past 13 Tests.

Stokes read the criticism as calling the team’s character into question. Or perhaps he had seen Graeme Smith’s column in The Independent following Trent Bridge, when the former South Africa captain accused England of an of “abject lack of fight”.

Either way England’s current vice-captain is not happy – and that is probably bad news for South Africa when the third Test starts on Thursday.

“For anyone to question our fight or desire or anything like that I think is wrong,” said Stokes. “They should know how much it means to play for England - how much it means to wear the Three Lions on your chest. To then get questioned about your desire and commitment and fight for England was a bit far but we have to take criticism of performances, which we are understanding of but anything to do with desire is too much.”

Questioned on Vaughan’s specific accusation of disrespecting Test cricket, Stokes added: “I didn’t actually read it - I saw a few things on Twitter - I didn’t want to get annoyed any more.”

The universal gripe following England’s defeat in Nottingham was that the batsmen did not show the application needed for Test cricket – that too many have wedded themselves to an aggressive approach come what may.

“Aggression doesn’t always mean scoring at a strike rate of 80,” says Stokes. “It’s backing yourself whether you are going to be aggressive or rein yourself in. It’s just about adapting. We didn’t manage to do that.

“We’ve had one poor performance. It’s sort of been the same thing – we have a good performance, we’re the best team; we have a bad performance, we’re the worst team.

“Then we win the next game, and we’re the best team again. It’s quite hard to win with you guys sometimes.”

Inconsistency has plagued England since Trevor Bayliss took over as coach two years ago. The defeat at Trent Bridge, which followed a big win in the opening match of the series at Lord’s, was the seventh time under Bayliss the team have followed a Test victory with a loss.

“It is frustrating,” said Stokes. “We know how good we are at bouncing back but it is a huge two games coming up, especially this one. If we can get back to our best it will show where we are and what we are about as a team.”

England’s hopes of doing just that at The Oval will be made more difficult by the return of Kagiso Rabada. The 22-year-old fast bowler was banned for the second Test when he picked up his fourth demerit point after he was caught by the stump mic telling Stokes to “f*** off” when he dismissed the all-rounder on the first day of the series at Lord’s.

“It came out of nowhere, which is why I turned around,” said Stokes. “I have no bad blood with him or any grudges - if anything it just shows he’s cares about how he performs. Unfortunately with stump mics if you are going to say something loudly it can’t be a swear word as I know personally.”

Stokes has two demerit points himself after being involved in heated verbal exchanges during two of England’s Tests during the winter – against Bangladesh at Dhaka and India at Mohali. With the Ashes coming up this winter, the 26-year-old knows he has to tread carefully to avoid a ban himself in the future.

“We need to understand that sometimes when you get caught up in the moment you forget there are stump mics,” he said. “We need to know there are kids watching at home.

“But at the same time we are out there trying to perform on the biggest stage and sometimes language can be thrown around that you wouldn’t necessarily say in front of children - maybe we should just say it on the boundary rather than next to the stumps.

“It is part of the game. You just need to be careful with what you say and where you say it.”

Rabada is not the first – and certainly won’t be the last – opposition player to clash with Stokes.

“We are similar, there is no beef it’s just that there are two personalities like ours and it sometimes will start something,” admits Stokes. “But it is good to be in a battle and I think spectators want to see those individual battles.

“I don’t go looking for it. Sometimes there is just a moment in the game that flicks a switch with me. It is more with my bowling though, it gets me going and gets the adrenaline going and you get into individual battles with the guy at the other end.”

Stokes and his team-mates have been upstaged in recent days by the success of England’s World Cup-winning women’s team.

He says: “What they managed to achieve was amazing. I don’t think there’s jealousy. They’ve done the nation very, very proud. As players, we couldn’t be more happy for them. We hope we can perform as well as they did.”

Investec is the title sponsor of Test match cricket in England. For Out of the Ordinary thinking visit investec.com/cricket