Stokes Acknowledges England’s Poor Form, Reaffirms Commitment To Leadership Role

England suffered a heavy defeat against Australia in Adelaide, which ended their hopes of winning the Ashes. It also brought a big setback to Ben Stokes, who had strongly backed his team’s aggressive style of play before the start of the series. After consecutive defeats, Stokes has now admitted that England’s recent form has been poor in test cricket.

Speaking to the reporters after the match, Ben Stokes said that it is disappointing for him and the team to lose the Ashes series. They came to Australia with a clear objective of reclaiming the urn; however, the recent results have been very poor for them.

"It obviously sucks. Knowing now that we can't achieve what we set out to do here is obviously very disappointing… It's quite simple to me that Australia has been able to execute batting, bowling, and fielding a lot more than us on a much more consistent basis,” said Ben Stokes at the post-match press conference.

He further added that Australia executed everything better than England, which is why they won back-to-back matches. Although England showed competitiveness at different moments, they largely failed to maintain consistent pressure on Australia.

"They've been able to execute everything a lot better than us [for] a much more consistent period of time. We've had moments where we've been very good, but Australia have been a lot better than us over a much longer period of time in this series so far,” said England test captain Ben Stokes.

Knowing the demands of Australian conditions, England had several plans in mind. Unfortunately, they couldn’t execute them properly in the matches, which made many things difficult for them.

"We know the plans that work out here. We've just not been able to execute those plans for long enough. We did it in moments and did it in passages, but you just can't be so poor with your execution as consistently as we have been over these first three games, and particularly with the ball, because when you're off here, it gets punished, and we've seen that," said Ben Stokes.

The Australian captain, Pat Cummins, believes England has changed their playing style over the last three matches. He said teams often do that on overseas tours to find the most suitable method to counter the home side.

"They seem to have changed their style quite a bit game to game. I think that can happen in overseas conditions: you're always trying to fight for a method that works," said Australian test captain Pat Cummins.

He further said that England’s approach on the second day of the Adelaide test was surprising, as they did not opt to attack the Australian bowlers despite batting on a flat wicket.

"Day two I thought was surprising: it was 40-odd degrees, it was hot, it was a very flat wicket, and they shut up shop there for half of the day, which I was pretty happy with. Who knows? I'm sure they'll talk about it and come at us with different plans for Melbourne and Sydney. I'm glad that we've been able to stick to our guns and play the way that we play best, and it's worked," said Pat Cummins.

England Aim to Bounce Back with Much on the Line

Despite losing the series, Ben Stokes understands that England still needs to play good cricket to win the upcoming matches. The nature of the ongoing WTC cycle requires every team to give their best in all the test matches, as the points accumulated through wins make a lot of impact on the WTC points table.

"Walking out there and playing for England is a good enough thing in itself… We're not going to turn around and kick the stumps over because we have so much more to play for in the series, although we can't go back with the thing we came out here to do," said Ben Stokes.

Speaking about the current mood in the dressing room, Stokes admitted that everyone is a bit emotional after losing the series. However, they also understand that there is still a lot at stake, and they need to bounce back strongly to give themselves a chance in the remaining games.

"It's a pretty emotional time for me and the dressing room and the guys - players, management, backroom staff - but when we get ourselves together and speak about the game and what we need to do in the remaining games, we'll take a lot out of this game. This is how we can apply ourselves to give ourselves a better chance of being a much more consistent team," concluded Ben Stokes.