Ben Stokes has tried to draw a line under England’s shattering two-day defeat in Perth by admitting: I got it wrong.

As his team prepare for Thursday’s pivotal second Test at Brisbane, the yawning 11-day vacuum between matches has been filled by endless social-media hot takes – on everything from England’s batting collapse to their refusal to reroute to Canberra for this weekend’s pink-ball game against a Prime Minister’s XI.

Even their attitude has been dragged through the mud. One front-page headline above a photo of Stokes, apparently in no need of further explanation, simply said: ‘Arrogant.’

Shortly before his team embarked on their first training session since Perth at Brisbane’s Allan Border Field, he was at least able to laugh that one off: ‘You can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want. We didn’t have the Test match we wanted to. I think arrogant might be a little bit too far, but that’s OK.’

Instead, England’s captain has used the extra-long hiatus to consider weightier matters – above all, how on earth the game went from WinViz rating their chances of victory at 75% to a morale-sapping defeat within a few hours, inviting ridicule from Australians and despair from the English.

‘We’ve used that time to reflect on all kinds of things, not only from a team point of view but me as a captain,’ he said. ‘The next time we’re in a situation like that, I’ll be in a better place to handle something that happens so quickly.

‘I know there were areas in that fourth innings where I could have been a lot better as captain. I am the person who makes decisions about how we go out there and operate, and I am the one who gives the plans to the bowlers. On reflection, I wasn’t as clear as I normally am in those moments.’

Stokes was referring to England’s inability to change plans once it became clear Travis Head was enjoying the short ball as Australia raced to their target of 205. And while his self-critique downplayed the significance of their second-innings collapse of nine for 99, it did speak of a humility that many out here believe the team lack.

Such was the anger among the 9,000-strong travelling support that lasting damage seemed to have been done to the relationship between England’s players and a section of their fans. It was no coincidence that Stokes, having decided to front the team’s first media engagement since Perth rather than assistant coach Marcus Trescothick, restated the importance of the bond.

‘We love our fans and we know we’ve got an incredible fan base who come out here and support us,’ he said. ‘They want to see us win, we want to win. We’re absolutely desperate, they’re absolutely desperate. We’re all on the same wavelength.’

Australians have already branded Stokes’s team aloof and surly, though they have never needed an excuse to mock the Poms. The last thing he needs is for England fans to follow suit.

Stokes even clarified his reference to the ex-England cricketers who had criticised his team’s Ashes preparation as ‘has-beens’, saying it was no more than a ‘slip of the tongue’, and joking that, one day, he would be joining their ranks.

Above all, he said that England’s determination to adhere to the gameplan that has brought them 25 wins and 15 defeats since he joined forces with Brendon McCullum in 2022 was not some stubborn refusal to accept that Perth went awry.

‘When we say “we’re going to stick to what we’re doing”, it doesn’t mean we don’t think about all of this kind of stuff,’ he said. ‘We keep it very simple, which is always looking to put the opposition under pressure, but also understanding the moment we need to absorb the pressure that is being piled on to us.

‘We know we are very, very good at the first bit and we all know there are areas we can be better at doing the second bit. We don’t take anything for granted. We are professional sportsmen, and we pride ourselves on how we go about things and on the results of the games.’

Even so, England’s biggest challenge against Mitchell Starc and the pink ball under the Gabba lights will be to maintain their positive intent without tipping over into the recklessness that cost them the first Test.

Because whatever their post-match rationalisation about the role played in their defeat by Head’s blistering century, the truth is that the game was lost before that, when Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Joe Root carelessly fell within six balls shortly after lunch on the second day. And Stokes reiterated that England need to be better at turning positions of strength into success.

‘You can all agree with me it’s not a skill issue or a quality issue with regard to that moment,’ he said. ‘We’re all really good players. It’s just having an understanding that being 100 ahead and one down in the third innings was an unbelievably strong position.

‘We had our foot on the throat of Australia, and I guess a good thought is you’ve never got enough when it comes to the bat, and you’ve never got enough on the board when you’re trying to bowl a team out.’

Whether others will agree with his insistence that Zak Crawley, who bagged a pair at Perth, remains England’s best bet to partner Ben Duckett at the top of the order is another matter.

But it would be wrong to doubt the sincerity of his belief that he can preside over England’s first successful Ashes comeback in Australia since 1954-55 – even in the kind of tropical heat and humidity that reminded Stokes of Sri Lanka.

‘It’s a five-game series, and we’ve got four games to go,’ he said. ‘We’ve lost the first one, but we’re absolutely desperate to come home with our goal, which is to win the Ashes.’