After a whirlwind innings from Travis Head, whose once-in-a-generation knock dismantled England in the first Ashes 2025-26 Test at Perth, visiting skipper Ben Stokes said his team has moved on from that eight-wicket loss.
England had taken a 49-run lead by the end of Day 1, and it seemed they would push Australia into a corner. However, the collapse of nine wickets before Tea saw the team set a paltry target of just 205, which the home side chased in 28.2 overs courtesy of Head’s 69-ball century.
“We’ve talked about it and we’ve moved on. We had some good conversations around the group,” Stokes said in Brisbane ahead of the second day-night Test starting on Thursday.
“Look, Travis played an amazing knock, there’s no hiding away from that. But that’s not the overriding contribution as to why we didn’t end up getting the result,” he said.
Stokes also said there were “amazing things throughout that Test match.”
“The way that we bowled in the first innings … and we ended up putting a score on the board that we believed was definitely defendable. But we all know there were moments in that game where we could have been a lot better to help us gain even more of an advantage that we did have,” he said.
“We know that and we understand that. And the important thing that you need to do from that as a team and as individuals is learning from that,” added Stokes.
England now faces a daunting task in the Pink Ball Test at the Gabba in Brisbane to level the five-match Ashes series against Australia, the undisputed masters of pink-ball Tests, who have won 13 out of 14 matches under lights. Despite England’s mixed record, management opted against having any of their main players take part in a two-day day-night clash against a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra. The decision was also slammed as “amateurish” by former Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan, who added that he was “staggered” that they would turn down the opportunity.
Stokes said he understood the blowback but defended the move, explaining that the team scheduled extra training sessions in Brisbane instead.
“There’s where it is, it’s in Canberra, which is a different state. The (weather) conditions are obviously going to be completely different to what we’ve got coming up. So what you try and do is you try and take all the factors into consideration, the pros, the cons, whatever it may be, and then you always discuss that and decide what is it that we think is going to be our best preparation,” he said.
“We know that we are doing everything that we can to make sure that we are best prepared for this game,” he added.
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