Stokes' fiery counter after England captain faces severe backlash over declaration in Ashes Test: ‘We sent a message’

Ben Stokes didn't mince his words as he explained the reason behind declaring England's first innings towards the end of the opening day of the Ashes Test.

Australia secured a dramatic two-wicket victory in the first Test of the Ashes at Edgbaston on Tuesday. Chasing a 281-run target, the Aussies looked in trouble when they lost the key wicket of Usman Khawaja – still requiring 72 more runs to win with only three wickets in hand. But Australia captain Pat Cummins produced a brilliant performance with the bat, as he remained unbeaten on 44 off 73 balls and also smashed the winning runs, while Alex Carey (20) and Nathan Lyon (16*) playing a supporting role in a famous win for the visitors.

England's Ben Stokes with Australia's Pat Cummins after Australia win the first Test (Action Images via Reuters)

Following England's loss, their captain Ben Stokes faced significant criticism on social media for the decision to declare their first innings on the first day of the Test; the side had declared on 393/8, inviting the Aussies to bat for nearly 20 minutes of the day's play. The aggressive declaration didn't sit well with many supporters as well as fans, but Stokes has now defended the decision, stating that England wanted to “pounce” on Australia.

“I saw (the declaration) as an opportunity to pounce on Australia. No one likes to go out for 20 minutes at the back end of a day,” Stokes said following the match, as quoted by Sky Sports.

"Scoring 390 and then being able to declare sends a message to Australia about how we want to take them on.

“If we didn't declare, would we have got that excitement like we did at the end? I'm not 100 per cent sure but I'm not going to be looking back at this game as what ifs. We just didn't manage to get over the line.”

Stokes further said that there were many different moments in the game where situations could've turned in favour of either sides.

"I mean, look, you play cricket over five days. There's so many things that goes on that you could look back at, you know, sort of 20 individual moments, which you could go like, 'oh, if that happened, if that went our way could this game have been different?' But, you know, I don't like to look at things like that.

“We've managed to stand up to Australia and being in control for most of it makes it hurt a little bit more that we've lost but there are four more games left,” said Stokes.