Ben Stokes questioned England’s mentality after their crushing defeat to Australia in the second Test left them 2-0 down in the Ashes.
England showed some fight on day four but were thrashed by eight wickets in Brisbane and Stokes questioned the mentality of his players in pressure situations.
“Stuff is happening over and over again,” said the England captain.
“They are all incredibly talented players but if you can't put it down to a skill thing you start to wonder, what is it?
“Do we need to start thinking about what mentality we are taking into those pressure moments? When we are on top, we are great. When behind the game, we are also very good. But when that moment is neck and neck we are not coming out on top on enough occasions.
“Moments in the game where it is on the line. Is it fight, character, mentality that we take out there as a group - that is what I have got to find out.
“There is a saying that we have said a lot here that Australia is not for weak men. A dressing room that I am captain of is not a place for weak men either.
“We need to dig deep, I need to dig deep. I need to get this team in a place where we come to Melbourne [and] we are switched on and we know where we are.”
England have nine days to pick themselves up off the floor before the third Test at Adelaide.
Only one team in history, Donald Bradman's Australian class of 1936-37, has ever overturned a 2-0 deficit to win a five-match series.
England have not won a single Test on Australian soil since 2010-11, losing 15 and drawing two.
Coach Brendon McCullum bizarrely claimed England “trained too much” ahead of the second Test, amid fierce criticism of their preparations in Australia.
Asked if he would have done anything differently, McCullum said: “Not from a preparation point of view. If anything we probably trained too much.
“We had five intense training sessions leading into the game and that's something as a coach you've got make sure you're aware of. Sometimes there's a tendency to want to do overdo things to make up for it.”
