England captain Ben Stokes said it was important to let the hurt and frustration from a crushing loss to Australia in the first Ashes Test linger before shifting focus to Brisbane.
But the shell-shocked skipper, who described Travis Head’s match-winning 123 as “pretty incredible”, said he will wake up on Sunday and go to work on lifting England’s morale.
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“We’ve been in situations before where we have been behind in series, so our attitude that stands out that allows us to move on to the next game through good and through bad,” he said.
“We’re a very good team at, I think, dealing with emotions when we need to think about what we have got coming up next. (And) I’m a pretty level headed person in terms of success and failure, so I’ll wake up in the morning and still be incredibly disappointed.
“But all of my focus and all of my energy will be going into getting the group back up and moving our thoughts and what we need to do on to Brisbane.”
He is adamant England, which appeared in control of the opening Test when leading by more than 100 runs with nine wickets in hand at lunch, will carry no baggage into the Gabba Test despite the stunning turnaround on Saturday afternoon.
“Obviously there is disappointment and a lot that you come off the field with when being on the losing side,” he said.
“So that’s up to myself (and) it is up to Baz (Brendon McCullum) and some of the other senior guys, who have had a lot of experience in big series like these. You’ve got to let your emotions sink in and it has got to hurt.
“But you have also then got to get rid of them as quickly as you possibly can while also learning from it, because when we get to Brisbane, we need to be back up to that mindset of how we came into the series before this game.
“We are still very confident in our abilities and in achieving our goal. It is going to be crucial … not taking any baggage from this result into Brisbane, because we need to win that one.”
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Stokes is adamant the attacking, aggressive style with which England bats under their ‘Bazball’ ethos is the correct one, despite stunning collapses in both the first and second innings. Several players were caught in the outer with expansive shotmaking.
But he believes the innings by Head, among others, demonstrated that there is merit in attacking cricket, saying the most successful batters were those who took the game on.
“I think you can label it how you want when obviously things are dictated on the outcome of the decision, “ he said.
“But as I said, the batsmen who found success out there were ones where, when any scoring opportunity came their way, they didn’t feel like they wanted to let go.
“You still have to find ways of scoring runs on flat wickets. You still have to find ways of scoring runs on wickets that offer a lot for the bowlers.
“The way in which 19 wickets fell on Day One, we were more proactive with our approach of scoring those runs, hence how we managed to come away with a 50-run lead.
“Obviously it would have been nice to have a bigger lead going into our last bowling innings, but we were very confident about our ability to keep Australia restricted to under 200 and win the game.”
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A criticism of England’s ‘Bazball’ approach is that it reduces the time its bowling unit has to recover and it was notable that an attack that was fearsome on Friday proved far less zippy on Saturday afternoon.
“I think that can be a natural thing to happen,” Stokes said.
“The Day One expenditure of an Ashes series, I think it takes a lot out of you, more than what people can probably understand. We threw quite a lot of energy and effort into that bowling performance yesterday.
“And look, it is not like we were bowling slowly, even if the pacers were down a few Ks. Mark Wood was sitting in the mid-140s, high 130s, so I wouldn’t say that is slow.”
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But Stokes, who took five wickets in the opening innings, said he understood the “question and obviously I understand” why it is being asked given his role as an all-rounder.
“Bat for longer is a pretty easy thing to say. It is a lot harder to do,” he said.
“Every bowler would love a bit more rest, but … yeah.”
Several reserves of the English squad are featuring in a Lions match against a Cricket Australia XI at Lilac Hill in suburban Perth that continues on Sunday.
There is another game in Canberra prior to the second Test of the summer at the Gabba beginning on December 4.
Stokes said that fixture would still largely feature players from their Lions squad despite the demoralising defeat in Perth.
When asked by the BBC if the loss in the first Test would make him consider changing that approach, Stokes said: “No. We’ve operated in this way where we know the preparation we put in is correct and works for us.
“I’ve been asked this question a lot. We prepare incredibly well, we work incredibly hard. Every single day we get the opportunity to work on our game. That’s what we’ll keep on doing.
“We trust in our process. If the results don’t go in our favour, that’s not going to differ.”
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It came after former England captain Michael Vaughan said on BBC prior to Stokes’ comments that it would be “amateurish” not to pick senior players in Canberra.
“What’s the harm in going out and playing with a pink ball when they’re about to play with a pink ball?” he added.
“They’re professional cricketers. I’m not silly for suggesting that by playing more cricket they’ll get better.”
For what it’s worth, head coach Brendon McCullum appeared more open to the idea.
“We’ll let the dust settle tonight and then map out a plan, and decide whether some guys (get some more game time),” he said.
“This has come quickly and we’re disappointed, but we’re strong believers in what we’re doing.”