The Stokes-Jacks partnership couldn\u2019t prevent an Australia victory<\/a>, but it underlined how England\u2019s methods across the first three-and-a-half innings of the series were ill-judged. The Bazball mantra has once again come under the microscope.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s got to be the blueprint moving forward,\u201d former Australian opener David Warner said off Fox Cricket commentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re capable of digging in, but it\u2019s about doing it consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters during the post-match press conference, Stokes was asked about his knock, the second-slowest fifty of his Test career having reached the minor milestone in 148 balls. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted us to fight,\u201d the England captain declared.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as you walk out there and think in your head, \u2018I\u2019m going to fight all the way to the end here\u2019, that\u2019s all you can focus on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you saw from me and Will Jacks was me saying, \u2018Anyone who\u2019s got responsibility left in this game, just show fight\u2019. Sometimes, that doesn\u2019t show in the output of what you\u2019re trying to do. It\u2019s all in the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Embarrassing’: Pressure mounts on Jofra | 08:32<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Brisbane\u2019s spectators would have been forgiven for thinking the Australians were the Bazballers during the Gabba Test. On Saturday afternoon, the hosts reached the 400-run milestone in just 78.2 overs, making it the second-fastest innings in Ashes history.<\/p>\n
Australia scored at 4.55 per over during the Gabba Test, bettering England\u2019s 4.15. The tourists were being outplayed at their own game.<\/p>\n
The Australians were aided by some short, wayward bowling, particularly during the afternoon session of day two, while Cameron Green and Steve Smith weren\u2019t afraid to play their shots when England\u2019s quicks turned to a bumper barrage under floodlights.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the shots were a bit reckless at times,\u201d Australian opener Jake Weatherald confessed at stumps on Friday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in general, I think it came off quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps bewitched by the game\u2019s high-scoring tempo, Green suffered a rush of blood to the head on day two and decided to slog England seamer Brydon Carse. His first attempt paid dividends, thumping a flat-batted boundary down the ground, but he was left red-faced after backing away from a yorker that thudded into his pegs, almost positioned off the pitch.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s batters have been mocked mercilessly for their reckless dismissals over the last three years, but Green\u2019s wicket was as ugly as anything witnessed during Brendon McCullum\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Bazball was rubbing off on the opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game has changed,\u201d former Australian opener Phil Jacques said on ABC commentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn days gone by, it would be the end of your career if you lost a Test getting out like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes confessed England had failed to withstand the pressure of the blockbuster series thus far, and while he didn\u2019t say so explicitly, it was apparent he had become frustrated with the team\u2019s lack of resilience.<\/p>\n
On day one, the dangerous Harry Brook was dismissed on the first delivery he faced from Mitchell Starc after trying to slog the Australian speedster through mid-off. Just over 48 hours later, Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley departed in almost identical fashion, chipping return catches back to seamer Michael Neser.<\/p>\n
Will Khawaja make the cut for 3rd Test? | 03:47<\/p>\n
\u201cOur blueprint is about applying pressure to the opposition, but also understanding that we do need to absorb that at moments. We are a much better team at applying it than we are at absorbing it at the moment,\u201d Stokes continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll always see us chase the ball hard to the boundary, and you\u2019ll always see people leave everything out there on the field. That is the blueprint of this team. And we can definitely look to improve on the moments where we need to absorb (pressure).\u201d<\/p>\n
If England can\u2019t learn to adapt to conditions and the match situation, a 5-0 series whitewash isn\u2019t out of the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cStokes said he will be having conversations with his teammates in the nine days between now and the third Test in Adelaide and, when he goes and knocks on their doors, he must deliver some harsh truths,\u201d former England captain Nasser Hussain wrote in The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cHe has to look those players in the eye and decide who is mentally strong enough because England cannot afford another game of just rocking up and playing the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not thinking smart. They are not thinking straight under pressure. It cannot just be, \u2018Let\u2019s go again, lads.\u2019 The first sign of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results, and England cannot afford that now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters during the post-match press conference, Australian stand-in captain Smith confessed he didn\u2019t know how England would respond to the Gabba drubbing, whether they would amp up the aggression or rein in their approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re obviously a really good side, and have played great cricket for a couple of years now,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to come back hard. Whether they come back and play really aggressive or take the foot off the pedal a little bit and try to prolong the game a bit, we\u2019ll wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third Ashes Test between Australia and England gets underway at Adelaide Oval on December 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England fans must have been wondering why it took until day four of the second Test for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-340367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765088290_713_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n