LONDON – Ben Stokes has urged England to bounce back from their Trent Bridge thumping by South Africa and show how good they really are when the third Test at The Oval starts on Thursday.
England were thrashed by 340 runs with more than a day to spare at the Nottingham ground as the Proteas levelled the four-match series in commanding style.
The hosts have now had over a week to ponder on that defeat, with all-rounder Stokes insisting there was nothing wrong with England’s attitude.
“You take good performances and bad performances in your stride, and I think it’s all about how we come back in this Test, which will prove how good a side we are,” he told Sky Sports at The Oval on Tuesday.
“Obviously, it wasn’t an ideal performance from us as a team and we know that,” the Durham star added.
“It’s good that we managed to get time away and sort of look back on, and assess where we went wrong, and hopefully we can right the wrongs this week.
“No-one’s ever going to get questioned in that changing room about their fight and desire for wanting to perform for England.”
A lack of runs cost the home side dearly in Nottingham, with Joe Root’s team managing 215 in the first innings before collapsing to 133 all out second time around.
But with England having won the series opener at Lord’s by an emphatic 211 runs, Stokes was confident that South Africa did not now have a huge advantage in terms of momentum.
Ben Stokes kicks the ground after being dismissed in the second Test. Photo: Reuters
“It’s 1-1, both games have been pretty one-sided, and the team who won swapped around,” he said.
“We’ve got two games left, so we just need to make sure that we come out here and put in a better performance than we did at Trent Bridge and really take a front foot in the series.”
The 26-year-old added: “I think the biggest question is just being able to adapt better.
“We obviously didn’t quite get to grips with that in that last innings, so I think the quicker we can learn to adapt to different situations, the better off we will be.”