Ben Stokes has offered one of the most candid reflection on his tenure as England captain, he openly admitted that the team has struggled to perform under pressure against Australia. Speaking to TNT Sports, Stokes bypassed the usual excuses about conditions, luck, or strategy, and pinpointed the issue squarely on mentality.
According to Stokes, England’s recent collapses is not because of lack of effort or capability but a failure to maintain composure. “When the game is on the line, teams are able to handle that pressure better than us,” Stokes said after the loss.
“We are a great team when we are ahead, when we are behind and playing huge catch-up, we are great, but when the game is on the line, we are not able to stand up to pressure. That is obvious as a captain. It’s a mentality, a mindset. How you get yourself into a headspace to make clear decisions is so important to be successful at this level,” he said.
“No one means to drop catches or not bowl where you are supposed to, but those things cannot happen at this level. We knew exactly how we needed to bowl, and we weren’t able to do it for a long enough period to put Australia under pressure; that was evident in the way they were able to score so quickly and easily,” reasoned Stokes.
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“We weren’t able to execute with bat and ball, and we’ll be having some conversations in the dressing room. It seems to be a constant theme that when the pressure is on, Australia keep outdoing us. They say Australia is not a place for weak men, and we are definitely not weak, but we need to find something,” he added.
Stokes gave a proper critique as to where the England team lacked, for him the lapse in execution are a symptoms of a bigger problem. The England skipper acknowledged that the team needs to develop mental resilience to handle high-pressure situations.
