Ben Stokes says England were 'not able to stand up to the pressure' of Test cricket as Australia take 2-0 lead in Ashes series
Updated 07/12/2025 at 11:58 GMT
Ben Stokes said his players are struggling with the "pressure" of Test cricket as Australia won by eight wickets in Brisbane to go 2-0 up in the Ashes. England captain Stokes said Australia again delivered in the big moments better than his team, while he also pinpointed dropped catches as being crucial. The third Test starts in Adelaide on December 17, live on TNT Sports and discovery+.
England were 'not able to stand up to pressure' of Ashes Test - Stokes
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Ben Stokes admitted England were "not able to stand up to the pressure" as Australia claimed a comfortable win in the day-night Test in Brisbane to go 2-0 up in the NRMA Insurance men's Ashes series.
Australia sealed victory by eight wickets on the fourth day of the match, leaving England with the Herculean task of needing to win all three remaining Tests to claim back the Ashes.
The third Test starts in Adelaide on December 17, and will be live on TNT Sports and discovery+.
"Obviously very disappointing," Stokes said.
"I think a lot of it, to me, 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 it slip away. We've done that again here this week.
"It's very, very disappointing, especially considering the ability of the players in that dressing room. I think we need to think a bit harder and a little bit deeper about those moments and what we're taking mentally into those, and yeah, overall just show a little bit more fight when it's needed."
Asked if he knew why England did fall short in the key moments, Stokes replied: "If I could put my finger on it, I'd be able to tell you.
"It's definitely not a skill thing, there are some incredibly gifted players in that dressing room. And when you know it's not down to skill, you've probably got to dig a little bit deeper and find out what the thing is that we seem to keep doing in those big moments of the game.
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"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 know exactly how we want to bowl on that wicket and we weren't able to do it for long enough periods to put Australian batsmen under pressure.
"That was evident in the way Australia were able to score so quickly and so easily against us. I think Jofra [Archer] and Gus [Atkinson] set the tone very nicely actually when we first took the ball, but then myself and Bryde [Brydon Carse] sort of let the game get away from us quite quickly.
"So yeah, just not being able to execute what's needed, not only with bat in hand but also with ball. We'll be having some conversations that I'll be keeping into the dressing room.
"For me, it just seems to be a constant theme at the moment. When the game is in a pressure moment, Australia seem to keep outdoing us in those moments.
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"They say Australia isn't a place for weak men. We're definitely not weak but we need to find something because we're 2-0 down now and we've got three more games to go, and yeah, we need to sort it.
"I absolutely believe in that dressing room, I have full belief in the players that are in there, the coaching staff and the people that are there to help make us better players. What else have we got to do? We know we've got to win these next three games, we have been 2-0 down before, so we know what we need to do and we ain't going to shy away from the battle that we've got front of us.
"We do need to look at where things have gone wrong in these first two games and solve them out pretty quickly if we want to get these Ashes back to England."
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England v Australia Ashes highlights: Stokes' troops fall 2-0 behind in series
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Stokes made a point of saying how dropped catches cost England dear this week, as Australia maintained their stranglehold over their old rivals on home soil.
"A huge part of it is that we had to take 15 [25] wickets, you can't drop catches, they always come back to bite you," he told TNT Sports.
"If we were able to hold on to our chances, we should have been batting last night. No one means to drop catches. Yeah, those kind of things just can't happen at this level.
"Look at the way Australia caught today. You look at those things and weigh them up against what we were like in the field. Massive difference."
Watch every ball of the Ashes live on TNT Sports and discovery+
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