Ben Stokes has opened up on the ‘hurt’ he and his team-mates are suffering after losing the Ashes emphatically to Australia inside 11 days.
Sunday’s 82-run defeat at the Adelaide Oval condemned England to another series loss Down Under – with Australia leading the best-of-five encounter 3-0 with two Tests remaining.
This is the fourth successive Ashes tour in which England have lost the first three Tests but there was optimism that England could emerge victorious under Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.
Alas, that has not been the case and now they must dig deep to avoid a 5-0 series whitewash.
And speaking about their aspirations already being crushed, Stokes admitted it is emotional and disappointing to think about.
‘That dream that we came here with is now over, which is obviously incredibly disappointing,’ he said.
Ben Stokes says he and his England team-mates are ‘hurting’ after already losing the Ashes
‘Everyone is obviously hurting and quite emotional about it. But we’ve got two more games to go and that’s where the focus needs to switch to now.
‘We came here with a goal in mind and we’ve not been able to achieve that. It hurts and it sucks, but we’re not going to stop.’
England’s attempted second innings chase of 435 showed some fight – albeit it was too little too late in the outcome.
However, Stokes was pleased with that aspect of his side’s grit and has called for more of the same after questioning their toughness following the poor second Test defeat.
‘All of the stuff from last week about me wanting to see a bit more from the team, I can definitely say I saw that this week,’ Stokes said.
‘Some of the guys lower down the order dug in and showed that courage and fight that I was asking for.
‘Yes, we’ve been on the wrong side of the result, but I think we can take a lot from this game into the remaining two games.’
Stokes added: ‘Australia have just been able to execute things on a much more consistent basis than us – with the ball, the bat and in the field.
‘We’ve showed it in passages in this first three games, and this week I thought we did incredibly well to take it to where we did do in the fourth innings.
‘I thought we were on for another heist this morning when Jamie [Smith] and Will [Jacks] were playing so well, and though we now can’t do what we came here to do, there’s some good things to take out of this game.
‘We aren’t just going to fall over and let this series play out. We’re going to give absolutely everything.’
England next head to Melbourne for the fourth Test, which begins on Boxing Day, before the Ashes draws to a close in Sydney from January 4-8.
