Stokes questions England's mentality after Brisbane loss

England captain Ben Stokes has questioned the mentality of his players after they suffered another loss in the ongoing Ashes series to go 2-0 down. After losing the opening Test in Perth in just two days, England folded again in the day-night Test at the Gabba and are now staring at the prospect of another series loss in Australia.

"Over and over again, Australia have managed to get through those periods and outdo us," Stokes said after the game. "I know it's not a skill thing, because they're all incredibly talented players. But if you can't put it down to skill then you start to wonder, what is it? Do we need to start thinking about what mentality we're taking into those pressure moments?

"Because when we're on top we're great, but when the game is neck and neck we're not coming out on top on enough occasions to be able to challenge Australia. There is a saying that we have said a lot here, that Australia is not for weak men. A dressing room that I am captain of isn't a place for weak men either."

Stokes admitted his side has been put under pressure by Australia and they have not been able to cope. "The mental side of this game is tough," Stokes said. "Being in the right frame of mind when you're on top, that's the easy part. It's when you're behind, or when you're in the pressure moments, that's the hard part.

"We've been the team who have done that to other oppositions before, where we've put them under serious amounts of pressure and they've not been able to stand up to what we've offered. And at the moment, we've not been able to stand up to what Australia have thrown at us."

Head Coach Brendan McCullum had suggested his team over-prepared ahead of the Brisbane Test, to which Stokes agreed. "There's a great saying: are you going to train to train, or are you going to train to dominate?" Stokes pointed out. "There's a lot of training that you see go on where you're just doing it for the sake of doing it. You're doing it to look right, to be doing the right things, whereas actually you're not achieving anything out of it.

"It might look good to the external world, but wasting energy can be very, very detrimental. I understand that surely if you train more you're going to be better. But there's that saying, and I like to train to dominate, as does this team."

Speaking after the game, Stokes pointed out that his teammates should look up to Joe Root. The former captain told Stokes after the Perth defeat that he would make amends in the next Test, which he did by scoring his first Test century in Australia.

"Root getting a hundred is a great example for the group," Stokes said. "Just look at the scrutiny he was under coming out here. He sat next to me after that first Test in Perth and apologised—which I said he never has to do—and told me he would get a big score next time. That is an incredible mindset that everyone can feed off. To do what he did this week, a lot of guys can learn from that, myself included."