While chasing a target of 205 runs, the host had sent in Head as an opener, and he repaid the faith of the selectors by scoring one of the best Ashes innings. He had scored 123 runs off just 83 balls, in which he had hit 16 fours and 4 sixes, and thus ruined the visitors' hopes of leading the series by 1-0.

Before this innings, it had become difficult to score runs on this surface. Harry Brook was the highest run scorer with 52 runs from both teams, and then Head came into bat, whereas Ollie Pope also scored a gritty knock of 40 runs. It was a paltry target of 205 runs as Stokes' five-wicket haul went in vain as Starc too took a brilliant 10-fer.

Talking about the loss, Stokes admitted that the last session went too quickly. "There's definitely a bit of shell shock. That innings from Travis Head was pretty phenomenal. It's all still pretty raw and fresh, but that was some knock," he said.

He said that they couldn't stick to their aggressive batting style and helped the host take control of the game. "When you look at how the game unfolded, the batters who had success were the ones who were brave and took the game on. It feels like we may have gone away from that a bit," he added.

He also revealed that they couldn't take a huge lead and fell short of a lot of runs. "On a wicket like that, you never feel you've got enough. If you're the one who gets in, you've got to give yourself the best chance to go big. I didn't see much success in trying to just hang around," he added.

The visitors also tried lots of options to stop Head, but Stokes said that there are just a few teams that can beat Australia after they have found their rhythm. "We tried three or four different plans. But when he's going like a train, the runs come so fast. I've seen Travis play across formats - he's very hard to stop when he gets into that kind of rhythm," he said.

Despite being in a commanding position, Stokes hopes that his team will move on quickly. "It's tough to start a series like this. It hurts. But we've got four more games. We need to let this sink in, move on, and get ready for Brisbane," he concluded.

The Steve Smith-led side will be entering the second Test with a 1-0 series lead, whereas the visitors will try to regroup after a short start to their Ashes campaign.