Perth, Nov 23 England captain Ben Stokes emphasised the importance of allowing the hurt and frustration from a heavy defeat to Australia in the first Ashes Test to persist before turning attention to Brisbane.
Stokes and Co. lost the first Test of the Ashes series on Saturday, with the game ending in just two days and the hosts clinching an eight-wicket win. The shell-shocked English skipper, who called Travis Head’s match-winning 123 ‘pretty incredible,’ said he would wake up on Sunday with a focus on boosting England’s morale.
“We’ve been in situations before where we have been behind in series, so our attitude that stands out that allows us to move on to the next game through good and through bad,” Stokes told reporters after the conclusion of the Ashes opener here at the Perth Stadium.
“We’re a very good team at, I think, dealing with emotions when we need to think about what we have got coming up next. (And) I’m a pretty level-headed person in terms of success and failure, so I’ll wake up in the morning and still be incredibly disappointed. But all of my focus and all of my energy will be going into getting the group back up and moving our thoughts and what we need to do onto Brisbane,” he added.
He remains confident that England, who seemed in control of the opening Test by leading by over 100 runs with nine wickets remaining at lunch, will not carry any baggage into the Gabba Test despite the remarkable turnaround on Saturday afternoon.
“Obviously, there is disappointment and a lot that you come off the field with when being on the losing side. So that’s up to myself (and) it is up to Baz (Brendon McCullum) and some of the other senior guys, who have had a lot of experience in big series like these. You’ve got to let your emotions sink in and it has got to hurt,” he said.
“But you have also then got to get rid of them as quickly as you possibly can while also learning from it, because when we get to Brisbane, we need to be back up to that mindset of how we came into the series before this game. We are still very confident in our abilities and in achieving our goal. It is going to be crucial … not taking any baggage from this result into Brisbane, because we need to win that one,” Stokes added.
Stokes insisted that England’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ batting style is the right approach, despite dramatic collapses in both innings. Several players were caught out in the open with ambitious shot-making. However, he believes that the innings by Head, among others, proved there is value in attacking cricket, stating that the most successful batsmen were those who embraced an aggressive approach.
“I think you can label it how you want when obviously things are dictated on the outcome of the decision. But as I said, the batsmen who found success out there were ones who, when any scoring opportunity came their way, didn’t feel like they wanted to let go. You still have to find ways of scoring runs on flat wickets. You still have to find ways of scoring runs on wickets that offer a lot for the bowlers.
“The way in which 19 wickets fell on Day 1, we were more proactive with our approach of scoring those runs, hence how we managed to come away with a 50-run lead. Obviously it would have been nice to have a bigger lead going into our last bowling innings, but we were very confident about our ability to keep Australia restricted to under 200 and win the game,” he concluded.
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