Captain Ben Stokes has questioned England’s mentality after Australia romped to an eight-wicket victory in the second Ashes Test in Brisbane.
Head coach Brendon McCullum echoed the frustration, suggesting that the tourists had actually “overprepared” for the second Test at the Gabba in the wake of a two-day drubbing in Perth.
Despite star batter Joe Root scoring his first-ever century in Australia and the side showing some resistance at times, England were comprehensively beaten by a superior Aussie outfit.
Stokes laments ‘obvious’ pressure problems
“When the game is on the line, teams are able to handle that pressure better than us,” Stokes told TNT Sports in an interview.
“We are a great team when we are ahead – when we are behind and playing huge catch-up, we are great – but when the game is on the line, we are not able to stand up to pressure.
“That is obvious as a captain. It’s a mentality, a mindset.
“How you get yourself into a head space to make clear decisions is so important to be successful at this level.
“No one means to drop catches or not bowl where you are supposed to, but those things cannot happen at this level.”
England ‘need to find something’
During the post-match presentation, Stokes added: “We knew exactly how we needed to bowl and we weren’t able to do it for a long enough period to put Australia under pressure.
“That was evident in the way they were able to score so quickly and easily. We weren’t able to execute with bat and ball, and we’ll be having some conversations in the dressing room.
“It seems to be a constant theme that, when the pressure is on, Australia keep outdoing us. They say Australia is not a place for weak men and we are definitely not weak but we need to find something.
“We won’t shy away from the battle but we need to sort things out pretty quick if we want to bring the Ashes back to England.
“I absolutely believe in that dressing room. I have full belief in the players and coaching staff. We know we have to win these next three games.
“We need to show more fight. It’s not a skill thing, so we need to find out why we seem to keep doing what we are doing.”
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McCullum believes visitors were ‘overprepared’
“We will have a beer tonight. I think leading into this Test match, I actually felt like we overprepared to be honest,” McCullum explained to 7Cricket after yet another loss.
“We had five intense training days and sometimes when you are in the heat of the battle, the most important thing is to feel a little bit fresh and make sure your top two inches are completely sound.
“I think the boys just need a few days off and we probably need to change up a few of the training methods.
“I am a horse racing man, and you wouldn’t just keep doing the same thing with your horse. We will look at some alternative methods over the next couple of days.
“We have got a couple of days in Noosa, so it will be nice to spend a few days casually and let the dust settle on what has been a pretty intense couple of weeks and start playing our way back into the series.”
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