a 22-run win<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWhat needed to be said has been said,\u201d replied Stokes, when asked if that message about weakness had been reiterated this past week. \u201cEveryone is very switched on for what needs to be done this week. Everyone has responded incredibly well to it \u2026 what other option do we have?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s trying to fight in every situation that you find yourself in, understanding the situation and what you feel is required. And yeah, just look at your opposition every single time and show a bit of dog. That is fight to me.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Lord\u2019s] has been brought up. That is exactly what I\u2019m on about \u2013 a moment where we all did that. You saw the way that team came out on that final day. We had to be absolutely perfect to win that game and we were. Attitude and mentality towards that situation is what gave us the best chance of winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
England have made one change to their XI this week. Josh Tongue has come in for Gus Atkinson \u2013 fresh legs into the pace attack \u2013 while Shoaib Bashir has again been overlooked for Will Jacks, the all-rounder, despite Stokes describing the 22-year-old as his first choice spinner a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n
Josh Tongue is the only change to England\u2019s XI for the third Test, replacing Gus Atkinson in the pace attack. Photograph: Philip Brown\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Of the 12 players England have used in this series, just five had played in Australia previously. Asked if the intensity of the cricket \u2013 not least two hostile crowds in Perth and Brisbane \u2013 was the reason for this supposed lack of fight from his team, Stokes replied: \u201cHonestly, I think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI remember my first tour here. You try to imagine what it\u2019s going to be like and you hear people talk. But when it does come around it\u2019s like \u2018wow\u2019. Now I feel everyone has experienced that and probably at its highest level, so we all know what it\u2019s going to be like.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for the next three games there isn\u2019t going to be any \u2018I didn\u2019t expect this\u2019 or \u2018it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve had this\u2019. Even the likes of Jamie Smith. He dropped that catch [at the Gabba] and then the whole crowd was then wailing at him every time he caught the ball. He now knows it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he had a message for supporters doubtless deflated by England\u2019s performances so far, Stokes replied: \u201cIt\u2019s completely understandable. But there are no deflated feelings whatsoever in this team right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere obviously were after the first two games because that\u2019s what the game does to you. But sitting here right now there\u2019s none of that with me and none of that with the team. If we were, what would be the point in turning up?<\/p>\n
\u201cSo hopefully in Adelaide, after everything that\u2019s been said, there\u2019ll be a different feel and a different look. We just need people to stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes has called on his England players to summon up the rage witnessed against India in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-349576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349576","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=349576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}