Stuart Broad defends Ben Stokes's England T20 omission

England Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad said maintaining a settled team was the reason for not selecting Ben Stokes for the opening T20 loss against Australia.

Stokes scored 120 in his second Ashes Test and was England's leading wicket-taker with 10 in the one-day series.

"Ben has been a form player but in T20 over the last 18 months we've done some wonderful things," Broad explained.

"Consistency is an important thing in sport but we'll reassess; when you lose games you've got to find a way to win."

England won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010 and, having failed to reach the semi-finals two years ago, will attempt to regain the title when the 2014 competition takes place in Bangladesh from 16 March-6 April.

They averaged 200 in three completed home matches against New Zealand and Australia last summer, with 10 of the 11 players on duty in Wednesday's defeat in Hobart featuring in the latter two games.

"The top seven has had a lot of consistency to it so changing for change sake didn't feel a great thing to do for this one game because the guys who have been in control of the shirt have done very well with it," said Broad, who has presided over 10 victories in his 20 matches as captain.

Stokes, 22, has played only four T20 internationals, the most recent of which was against the Kiwis in June, scoring 40 in two innings and taking 0-26 in his one spell of bowling.

However, the Durham all-rounder was man-of-the-match when England won in the fourth one-day international in Perth on 24 January - their only victory against Australia on the tour thus far - scoring 70 and taking 4-34, and was expected to be a key component of the T20 side.

"Ben has got a huge future ahead of him and he will play a part I'm sure in the few months leading into the World Cup. But personally I didn't feel this team needed a change the way we have been batting," Broad told BBC Sport.

Despite Ravi Bopara's unbeaten 65 from only 27 balls, England were beaten by 13 runs in the first match of the T20 series.

Australia openers Cameron White and Aaron Finch shared 106 and Broad said: "They played really well, we missed a chance in that first three or four overs which hurt us, it's been the story of our tour, missing chances like that, so it could have been a different game if that had been taken.

"Certainly the bowling, going for 213, is disappointing but I think 200 was probably par on this ground and we lost a few too many early wickets but scoreboard pressure is going to do that to you.

"Ravi has got a huge talent for that and it was great to see what he did. We didn't really get going with the bat but we still got 200 runs, which is pretty special. If we can get some of the top order guys firing that lays a platform for the likes of [Jos] Buttler and Bopara at the bottom, and anything can be chaseable."