Disappointed Stokes assesses England’s Gabba defeat
England fall 2-0 behind in the Ashes after another dominant Australian display at the Gabba, leaving the skipper searching for answers with three Tests to go.
The visitors showed moments of promise but again failed to sustain pressure when the contest tightened in the second Test in Brisbane. The defeat also meant that England slipped to seventh in the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 standings.
Since their fifth Ashes Test win in the 2010/11 season, England have failed to win their last 17 Tests in Australia, losing on 15 occasions and drawing two.
While Australia celebrated their clinical execution, England captain Ben Stokes cut a frustrated figure as he assessed another match where his side faltered in decisive phases, allowing Australia to regain control when the going got tough.
"Very disappointing,” exclaimed Stokes post the game.
"A lot of it comes down to not being able to stand up to the pressure of this game, this format, when the game is on the line. In small passages, we've been able to bring the game back into some kind of control and then we've let us slip away.
“We've done that again here this week, and it's very, very disappointing, in particular, because of the ability of the players that we have in that dressing room.
"We need to think a bit harder and deeper about those moments and what we're taking mentally into those, and overall show a bit more fight when it's needed.
Despite Root’s heroic unbeaten 138 in the first innings that took them to 334, Australia salvaged a 177-run lead, with five players amassing fifty-plus scores.
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."
Stokes added that England’s difficulties extended beyond pressure moments, acknowledging that his bowlers and batters struggled to consistently execute the plans required on a Gabba surface that rewarded discipline.
"Not being able to execute skill is something that you can live with, because no one means to bowl away from the plan that we're trying to do.
“We knew exactly how we needed to bowl on that wicket, and we weren't able to do it for a long enough period to put the Australian batters under pressure. And that was evident in the way that Australia were able to score so quickly and so easily against us.
"I think Jofra and Gus set the tone very nicely, actually, when we first took ball, but then myself and Brydon sort of let the game get away from us quite quickly.
“Just not being able to execute what's needed, not only with batting and also with the ball. We'll be having some conversations that I'll be keeping in the dressing room."
The England skipper stood out as the lone warrior in his side’s second innings slump, amassing 50 vital runs to keep England in contention. Despite his best efforts, Australia raced to a dominant eight-wicket win, chasing down 65 inside ten overs.
The third Ashes Test begins on Wednesday, 17 December in Adelaide.
