Ben Stokes: Travis Head domination 'knocked wind' out of England in humbling Ashes defeat

A “shell shocked” Ben Stokes lauded Travis Head after the Australian batsman led the hosts’ decimation of England in a heavy first Ashes test defeat for the tourists Down Under. The Three Lions had shown fight in Perth at the close on day one, bowling out the hosts for 132, as Stokes took five wickets. On day two, however, they collapsed, skittled for 164 with Zak Crawley sent packing to the pavilion with another duck as Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, and Brendan Doggett feasted on error-laden batting from Brendon McCullum’s side. Head then stepped up to the crease for the Aussies, looking to improve on his 21 knock in the first innings, and he smashed 123 off 83 to almost single-handedly wrap up a first victory inside just two days. Speaking to TNT Sports afterwards, England captain Stokes admitted that Head’s superb batting had “knocked the wind” out of the tourists. "I’m a little bit shell-shocked there," said Stokes. "That innings from Travis Head was pretty phenomenal. It is quite raw and quite fresh at the moment, but that was some knock. "Look, I guess you look at the way the game panned out, the guys who seemed to have success out there with the bat in hand were the guys who were really brave and who took the game on. "If you find yourself in a position where you are the guy who managed to get in, try to give yourself the best chance of going on. "As you have seen, anyone who tried to stay around there and try to occupy the crease for a long period of time did not seem to have a lot of success. "But that knock from Travis has knocked the wind out of us. "I think we tried three or four different plans with him, and when he is going like a train, those plans can change quite quickly. "When he is playing like that, I have seen Travis produce a lot of knocks like that both in red ball and white-ball cricket; he is very hard to stop." A humbling two-day defeat is a reality check for Stokes and McCullum, whose ‘Bazball’ approach has been questioned ahead of the Ashes series on Australian soil, where England are winless since 2011. "A lot has been spoken of about the history and how it has gone for England," Stokes continued. "This is our chance to create our own history and it is up to us how that looks. "I know this is a series that probably gets highlighted above all the other series that I've been a captain in. "But it will not diminish any of the time, energy and effort I've given to being an England captain."