Ben Stokes sends message to Australia as England captain breaks his silence for the first time since Ashes rival Pat Cummins led his side to incredible Cricket World Cup victory

Ben Stokes has begrudgingly congratulated the Australian cricket team following their World Cup triumph in India.

England Test captain Stokes put his rivalry with counterpart Pat Cummins aside to wish the Aussies well after their surprise six-wicket victory over the tournament hosts in Ahmedabad. 

‘Taken me a while to type this with gritted teeth,’ he posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

‘Congrats to Pat Cummins and his Australia team on winning the World Cup,after 8 weeks of hard fought cricket there is nothing better than lifting that trophy at the end of it.’

Cummins’ side have long been compared with Australia’s best men’s teams, and proved they belong in the conversation with Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting’s sides, the Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh era and Don Bradman’s Invincibles.

The core group have now won two ODI World Cups, with Sunday’s victory featuring seven players from the 2015 success at home.

They also won the 2021 Twenty20 World Cup, defying the odds to take Australia’s first trophy in the format.

In Test cricket the same group have retained the Ashes twice in England, marginally missing out on series wins in that country but having still held the urn for six years.

A Test series victory in India remains the one blemish on their record, after a few hours of madness in Delhi cost them earlier this year.

‘I couldn’t be prouder of the team for the last few years,’ Cummins said.

‘We’ve had some tough series but we’ve won some amazing series as well.

‘Everyone stood up, we feel like we’ve got a great red-ball team and the white-ball team has won two trophies in the last few years.

‘Things are looking pretty rosy.’