The England bowlers had no answers to the Aussies’ prowess with the bat, as Stokes (3-113), Gus Atkinson (1-114) and Brydon Carse (4-152) all conceded hefty runs.
“We sit there and watch what’s going on in front of us, what Australia are looking to throw at us, and what plans they’re trying to ball to. And then it’s up to us as players to be able to go out there with a plan and how to negate the threat.
“To me, it just seems to be a constant theme at the moment, that when you know the game is in a pressure moment, Australia keep outdoing us in those moments.
“They say Australia isn’t a place for weak men. We’re definitely not weak, but we need to find something, because we’re two-nil down now we’ve got three more games to go, and we need to, sort it.”
Another crucial factor that contributed to England’s loss were the five dropped catches in the first innings as Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Brydon Carse and Joe Root missed the chance to put pressure on the hosts.
“You can’t drop catches. They always come back, to buy you. And I think it definitely showed there. If we were able to hold on to our chances, we shouldn’t have been batting last night,” Stokes told TNT Sport.
“No one means to do that kind of stuff. No means to drop catches. No one means to not bowl an area where you set plans to but, yeah, those kind of things just can’t happen at this level.”
