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Stokes says England moved on from demoralising Perth defeat / Photo: © AFP
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Stokes says England moved on from demoralising Perth defeat
England captain Ben Stokes said Saturday that lessons had been learned from their crushing first Test loss to Australia but that the team had moved on, as he defended a decision for players to skip a pink-ball tour game.
Australia took a 1-0 lead in the five-match Ashes series with a stunning eight-wicket win in a frenetic two-day clash in Perth characterised by batting collapses and Travis Head's match-winning 123.
In the aftermath, England was slammed as "brainless" and even "arrogant" by former greats for their meek performance after putting themselves in a strong position to win.
"We've talked about it and we've moved on," Stokes said in Brisbane ahead of the second day-night Test starting on Thursday, adding: "We had some good conversations around the group."
"Look, Travis played an amazing knock, there's no hiding away from that," he said.
"But that's not the overriding contribution as to why we didn't end up getting the result."
Stokes noted there were "amazing things throughout that Test match."
"The way that we bowled in the first innings ... and we ended up putting a score on the board that we believed was definitely defendable," he said.
"But we all know there were moments in that game where we could have been a lot better to help us gain even more of an advantage that we did have.
"We know that and we understand that. And the important thing that you need to do from that as a team and as individuals is learning from that."
England face a daunting task at the Gabba in Brisbane to level the series with Australia masters of pink-ball Tests -- winning 13 out of 14 matches under lights.
Despite England having a much more mixed record, management opted against any of their main players being part of a two-day day-night clash against a Prime Minister's XI this weekend in Canberra.
The decision was slammed as "amateurish" by former Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan, who added that he was "staggered" that they would turn down the opportunity.
Stokes said he understood the blowback, but defended the move with England instead scheduling extra training sessions in Brisbane.
"There's where it is, it's in Canberra, which is a different state," he said.
"The (weather) conditions are obviously going to be completely different to what we've got coming up.
"So what you try and do is you try and take all the factors into consideration, the pros, the cons, whatever it may be, and then you always discuss that and decide what is it that we think is going to be our best preparation.
"We know that we are doing everything that we can to make sure that we are best prepared for this game," he added.
Z.Sanchez--SFF
