Ben Stokes looks to past experience to spark Ashes fightback

Evening Standard

Ben Stokes is hoping memories of England’s Ashes comeback in 2023 can help spark another fightback Down Under.Wednesday’s third Test at the Adelaide Oval is the first of three must-win games for a touring side who sit 2-0 down and have no more room for error if they are to succeed in bringing the urn back home.On paper, it looks close to being an impossible task. The only Test team to overturn such a predicament was Donald Bradman’s fabled side of 1936-37 and England are on a winless streak dating back 17 Tests and 15 years on Australian soil.But Stokes’ first Ashes campaign as captain began in similar circumstances, with losses at Edgbaston and Lord’s, before a stirring reversal of fortunes unfolded. Victories at Headingley and The Oval saw them tie the series, while it took two days of constant rain to deny them another win Old Trafford

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00:00We were able to draw on experience, being in the situation before. We know what it's

00:12like to be in this situation and we knew we had to come here and win this amount of games

00:18anyway. In terms of that, that hasn't changed from before we started. Everyone knows what

00:26needs to happen in the coming week and after that as well. If anything, it actually makes

00:32everything a little bit more simple, a little bit more clear for us. I've got full backing

00:40that we can do this. We've backed a group over a long period of time to not only enjoy

00:47what this game offers to you when it's all going good, but these are the times where

00:52the players that you have backed, you trust to go out there and deliver in moments like

00:57these and those are the guys that hopefully this week can stand up for the team and also

01:05for the country as well.

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