Perth, Nov 22 (UNI) Ben Stokes admitted to being rattled after England’s eight-wicket loss to Australia in the first Test here as Travis Head’s whirlwind knock blew the visitors away in the fourth innings on day two.
Head, who opened the batting for Australia in their second innings, smashed 123 off 83 deliveries to make a mockery of the target of 205 set by England and ease the hosts into a 1-0 lead in the series.
According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), the England skipper was left with nothing but acknowledgement for his opponent, who completely took the game away from his side.
“We’re a little bit shellshocked there,” Stokes said at the post-match presentation.
“That innings from Travis Head was pretty phenomenal. That was some knock. It’s knocked the wind out of us,” he said.
“We tried three or four different plans at him. When he was going like a train, those plans could change quite quickly, because those runs were coming down quickly,” Stokes said.
“I’ve seen Travis play a lot of knocks like that, whether it be in Test cricket or white-ball cricket. He’s very hard to stop,” he added.
Stokes also highlighted how batters across both teams who took the initiative to the bowlers enjoyed success on an otherwise lively Perth wicket.
“If you look at the way the game eked out, the guys who seemed to have success out there with bat in hand were the guys who were really brave and took the game on,” he said.
“Anyone who tried to stay around there and try and occupy the crease didn’t really seem to have too much success,” Stokes said.
“On wickets like this, you never think you’ve got enough, so if you find yourself in a position where you’re the guy who’s managed to get in, try and give yourself the best chance of going on. There was a lot of assistance there when the bowlers put the ball in the right areas. The guys who were brave enough to knock the bowlers off their lengths seem to find success on that,” he added.
The England captain admitted that the defeat was difficult to take but felt his team could head to Brisbane with some positives from the game.
“The way in which we bowled yesterday was simply phenomenal,” he said.
“This is a very tough one to get the series going when we felt we were in control of the game, and we were coming out there to bowl in that fourth innings. We’ve got four more games here,” Stokes said.
“We’ll obviously let this sink in. Obviously it hurts extremely, but we got to get our heads round and move on to Brisbane, and then hit the ground running there,” he added.
Stokes & Co. will look to bounce back in the second Test in Brisbane starting from December 4.
