Ben Stokes has warned his team that the England dressing room is no place for “weak men”and accused them of wilting under the intense mental pressure of Ashes cricket.
England lost the second Test at the Gabba to leave them 2-0 down with three to play, a position only one team, Don Bradman’s Australians of 1936/37, have ever come back to win from.
Advertisement
Stokes vowed that his team would fight until the end but was uncharacteristically critical of their handling of pressure and “fight”.
“There is a saying that we have said a lot here that Australia is not for weak men,” said Stokes. “A dressing room that I am captain of is not a place for weak men either.
“It’s very disappointing. A lot of it, to me, comes down to not being able to stand up to the pressure of this game, this format, when the game’s on the line.
Advertisement
“In small passages we’ve been able to get some kind of control – and then we’ve let it slip away. We’ve done it again this week. It’s very, very disappointing, particularly because of the ability of the players we have in our dressing-room.
“We need to think a bit harder and a bit deeper about those moments and what we’re taking mentally into them. Overall, we need to show a bit more fight when it’s needed.”
England suffered a horrendous collapse after lunch on the second day as they plummeted to defeat at Perth, then endured a series of loose moments in Brisbane, including losing six second-innings wickets under lights on day three, which left them with little chance of survival, despite Stokes’s fighting fifty. Stokes was also critical of their dropping five catches, saying: “You just can’t do that.”
Advertisement
“It seems to be a constant theme: when the game is at a pressure moment, Australia keep outdoing us,” he added. “They say Australia isn’t a place for weak men. We’re definitely not weak but we need to find something because we’re 2-0 down now with three games to go. We need to sort it.
“I have never had any doubt about the skill in this team. But there are moments in the game where the heat is on and the pressure is really, really cooking, where your character comes out more.”
He continued: “We have all been guilty of it so far on this tour at moments, maybe letting the pressure, the occasion, the circumstances get to us in our decision-making ability. That’s where it is so important to have that real clear mindset with everything.”
Advertisement
Stokes implied his gritty partnership with Will Jacks was a message to his team to dig deeper in the pressure moments.
“Nothing’s guaranteed in life and nothing’s guaranteed in sport but as long as you walk out there and think in your head, ‘I’m going to fight all the way to the end here’, that’s all you can focus on,” he said. “What you saw from me and Will Jacks was me saying, ‘anyone who’s got responsibility left in this game just show fight’.”
Advertisement
In 2023, England fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2, and were denied a likely victory at Manchester by the weather.
“I absolutely believe in that dressing room,” said Stokes. “I have full belief in the players and the coaching staff. We know we’ve got to win these next three games. We have been 2-0 down before. We ain’t gonna shy away from the battle in front of us. But we need to look at where things have gone wrong and sort them out pretty quickly if we want to get these Ashes back to England.
“We are 2-0 down, there are three games left. If we lose hope over the next couple of weeks, even next week, we might as well not turn up.
Advertisement
“I haven’t lost hope, that dressing room hasn’t lost hope, and I’ll be doing everything I can as a captain to ensure that everyone is as positive as they possibly can be. If any negativity comes into the mind when it’s our time to perform then it’s no good.”
Australia captain Steve Smith hit the winning runs for the second successive eight-wicket victory, and found himself sledging Jofra Archer, who has still never dismissed him in Test cricket. Smith told Archer, who hit 94mph in the fastest spell of the match as England attempted to depend just 65: “You bowl fast when there’s nothing going on champion.”
Advertisement
Smith later played down the encounter, saying: “That stays on the field, it was good banter. He’s a good competitor, he comes hard at you, so it was good fun.”
Article courtesy of
Source link
