Ben Stokes has warned his England players not to wallow in the pain of losing to Australia inside two days. A hotly anticipated Ashes series got off to a catastrophic start in Perth and he said they must “feel it and get rid of it” if they are to have a chance of levelling the scores in Brisbane.
The England captain said the tourists were “very confident in our ability to keep Australia to under 200 and win the game”, having set the home side a target of 205. Instead, they were marmalised by Travis Head, bumped up to open in place of the injured Usman Khawaja, who scored 123 off 83 balls to power his side to the verge of victory. It was a contribution the Australia captain, Steve Smith, described as “one of the great Ashes knocks”.
