Ben Stokes admitted on Sunday that England had not been able to withstand the pressure applied by Australia after a second successive defeat in Brisbane left his side 2-0 down in the Ashes series, with a 3-2 comeback now their only route to regaining the urn.
England’s captain identified a sequence of dropped catches on the second evening as the tourists’ most damaging lapse, a failure that allowed Australia to recover from 329 for 6, still short of England’s first innings 334, and push their total beyond 500 on the third day. Stokes stressed that England’s shortcomings were not due to a lack of skill, instead pointing to a mentality that had twice been exposed in high pressure moments.
“Very disappointing,” Stokes said at the post match presentation. “A lot of it comes down to not being able to stand up to the pressure of this game, this format, when the game is on the line. In small passages, we have been able to bring the game back into some kind of control and then we have let it slip away. We have done that again here this week.”
He added, “We need to think a bit harder and deeper about those moments and what we are taking mentally into those, and overall show a bit more fight when it is needed. When you know the game is in a pressure moment, Australia keep outdoing us. They say Australia is not a place for weak men. We are definitely not weak, but we need to find something.”
Speaking to TNT Sport, Stokes underlined that errors in the field had undermined their position more than anything else. England shelled five chances, allowing Australia to carve out a match defining lead of 177. “You cannot drop catches,” he said. “They always come back to bite you. If we were able to hold on to our chances, we should not have been batting last night.”
Stokes also accepted responsibility for a wayward spell with the ball alongside Brydon Carse, as Australia’s openers raced to a fast start, led by Jake Weatherald’s 72 from 78 balls. “We knew exactly how we needed to bowl on that wicket, and we were not able to do it for a long enough period,” he said. “Jofra and Gus set the tone very nicely, but then myself and Brydon let the game get away from us quite quickly.”
Despite the setbacks, Stokes insisted that England must maintain belief, noting that previous tours have brought heavy defeats but that the series remains alive. “Do not panic, do not flap, do not waver, and just have complete and utter belief in our guys as a team,” he said. “I believe emphatically in the group, I believe in myself as a captain, that I can get the guys into a place where they need to be to win these next three games.”
