Australia handed England a second pasting in a row to go 2-0 ahead in the five-match Ashes series. England had their moments but when the visitors really needed to seize it, they failed and Australia proved to be too good with bat, ball and in the field.
England captain Ben Stokes didn’t shy away from admitting that it was yet another poor performance from his side and that they really need to pull their socks up, if they have to challenge this Australian team, and maybe win a game or two before this ends. Despite Australia missing three of their big four, including Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon for the day-night Test at the Gabba, the hosts were able to put up a magnificent performance across the board and England were left licking their wounds.
After being 325/9 on the first day, England would have hoped to bowl Australia somewhere around that score, but the lower order frustrated England for over 50 overs and the two-time World Test Championship finalists were able to take a 177-run lead, which eventually proved to be decisive. In another instance, on the fourth day, Stokes and Will Jacks ground out a session and a half to build something in the lead for England and make Australia bat again, but couldn’t do it for longer and the hosts eventually prevailed.
Asked to sum up the game by Isa Guha during the post-match presentation, Stokes said, “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’ve been able to bring the game back into some kind of control and then we’ve let us slip away.
โWe’ve done that again here this week, and it’s very, very disappointing, in particular, because of the ability of the players that we have in that dressing room,” Stokes added, mentioning that all the players need to have a long and deep think about the moments where England had some sort of control on the game and how they can maximise those moments and make them last longer to dominate a couple of sessions ultimately.
“We need to think a bit harder and deeper about those moments and what we’re taking mentally into those, and overall show a bit more fight when it’s needed,” Stokes further said. Asked if the pressure of expectations was getting to this team and Stokes mentioned that pressure was always there since they landed in Australia and showed confidence in his side that they can turn it around saying that they aren’t weak.
“To me, it just seems to be a constant theme at the moment, that when you know the game is in a pressure moment, Australia keep outdoing us in those moments.
โThey say Australia isn’t a place for weak men. We’re definitely not weak, but we need to find something, because we’re two-nil down now we’ve got three more games to go, and we need to, sort it,” Stokes mentioned.
England are yet to win a Test in Australia for 17 matches now, spanning over four series, and will need something magical to turn it around, given it seems to be slipping away from the Englishmen rather quickly.