England captain Ben Stokes acknowledged on Saturday that he was “shell-shocked” after a devastating defeat to Australia in the opening Ashes Test, but he also advised his side to move quickly for the upcoming match in Brisbane.
In just two days at Perth Stadium, the visitors lost a fantastic chance to win a Test in Australia for the first time in 15 years.
After succumbing to a bowling onslaught from Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland, their much-discussed speed attack was unable to stop a furious Travis Head, who smashed an amazing 123 to win by 8 wickets.
“Little bit shell-shocked, it was pretty phenomenal from Head,” Stokes said. “It’s pretty raw, pretty emotional, but that was some knock.
“We tried three or four different plans to get him, but when he’s going like a train he’s very hard to stop.”
Stokes had some positives despite the heartbreaking defeat, especially their bowling performance in the first innings, which saw Australia dismissed for 132.
“The way in which we bowled yesterday was phenomenal. A lot happened on day one, a good day for the bowlers,” he said.
“It’s a tough one as we felt we were in control. We’ll let this sink in, but we’ve got four more games.
“It’s a long time before Brisbane, we’ll go away and put in the graft.”
On December 4, the day-night Brisbane Test will begin. Stokes acknowledged that he had his hands full trying to motivate the team because so many players were playing in their maiden Ashes.
“Yeah, I think we’ve got to let that whole two hours sort of sink in first and reflect on it properly, without the emotion that’s attached to what’s just gone on there,” he said, referring to Head’s knock.
“Obviously there’s disappointment when you come off the field being on the losing side.
“So that’s up to myself. It’s up to some of the other senior guys who have a lot of experience in big series like these because you’ve got to let emotions like this sink in, and it has got to hurt.
“But also you’ve 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 this game, still very confident of our abilities and achieving the goal.
“It’s crucial about not taking any baggage from this result into Brisbane.”
