'We could have performed better...': Ben Stokes reflects on England's defeat in 1st Ashes Test, hopes to do better in Brisbane

England skipper Ben Stokes remarked that the team learned a lot of lessons from their defeat to Australia in the first Ashes Test against Australia and have moved on from it. This comes after the Three Lions were comprehensively defeated by 8 wickets at the Optus stadium in Perth in a match that concluded in just two days.

It was Travis Head's explosive knock of 123 that turned the game in the favour of Australia and massively helped them in chasing down the 205-run target. Though Stokes was also left impressed with Head's power-hitting, he stated that the team could have defended the target if they had bowled better.

“We’ve talked about it and we’ve moved on. We had some good conversations around the group. Look, Travis played an amazing knock, there’s no hiding away from that. But that’s not the overriding contribution as to why we didn’t end up getting the result," Stokes said ahead of 2nd Ashes Test.

“The way we bowled in the first innings, and we posted a score that we believed was defendable. But we all know there were moments in that game where we could have performed better to gain an even bigger advantage. We understand that, and the important thing is to learn from it as a team and as individuals," he added.

Australia's phenomenal record in day-night Tests

With Australia having won 13 out of the 14 pink-ball Tests that they have played so far, it will be a mountain task for England to come out victorious in the second AshesTest that will be played in a day-night format from December 4. Even though the England team management knows how important the second Test in Brisbane will be, they decided to not send any regulars for the two-day day-night encounter between the England Lions and Australia's Prime Minister XI that will take place in Canberra.

Stokes responds to criticism around preparations for 2nd Test

This decision led to multiple former cricketers, including Michael Vaughan criticise the team. He even went on to label the call as "amateurish". Stokes shared his remarks on the scrutiny and stated that they decided to skip the warm-up game as they will be participating in extra training sessions in Brisbane.

“The match is in Canberra, which is a different state. The conditions will be completely different from what we’ll face. So, we consider all factors, the pros and cons, and decide what will be our best preparation. We know we are doing everything we can to be best prepared for this game," Stokes stated.

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England's squad for The Ashes: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue, Mark Wood.

Australia's squad for 2nd Ashes Test: Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster.