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England's star allrounder Ben Stokes says he's finding pleasure in the pain of the Ashes series against Australia.

Ben Stokes is finding pleasure in the pain while maintaining belief England can still rescue the second Test against Australia.

The tourists will resume on Saturday's third day of play in Adelaide with their collective backs against the wall: 2-17 in reply to Australia's imposing 9(dec)-473.

England spent some 150 overs in the field with Stokes sending down 25 overs in taking 3-113 in a draining physical effort.

"It has been a tough two days," Stokes said.

"It's never ideal but you have just got to love the dirt when you get that deep and understand what you're playing for."

Stokes also took a wider view of England's struggles, noting the tragic jumping castle accident in Tasmania on Thursday which claimed the lives of five children.

"Obviously the reason why the Australians were wearing the black arm-bands today puts a lot of things into perspective," he said.

Stokes is making his return to competitive cricket in the Ashes after six months out, both for mental health reasons and also while recovering from a broken finger suffered in the IPL.

"I have loved every minute of it," he said.

"Walking out onto the field and wearing the three lions is obviously one of the great feelings as a cricketer.

"Playing at these grounds in Australia, obviously being away from home makes it a little bit more difficult with crowds and stuff like that.

"But it's fantastic fun as well as being a huge honour."

Stokes was adamant the Adelaide day-night Test was far from decided despite Australia's position of power.

"We don't believe we are beaten already," he said.

And he defended England's opening day bowling tactics which revolved around sustained periods of short-pitched bowling.

"It's just obviously trying to create a different type of, not energy, but create a different type of environment out there for the batters," Stokes said.

"It does look odd when you're trying to run in and bowl 11 overs of short stuff.

"But the first couple of spells I felt like it created quite a lot of chances.

"It (the run rate) wasn't really going anywhere. It wasn't until the third session today that it started to leak a few runs.

"But you can create chances and make a few runs by trying to hit the top of off as well."