{"id":166902,"date":"2025-09-24T23:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T23:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/166902\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T23:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T23:59:09","slug":"ashes-series-england-squad-vs-australia-ben-stokes-injury-update-rob-key-pace-bowlers-video-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/166902\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes series, England squad vs Australia, Ben Stokes injury update, Rob Key, pace bowlers, video, news"},"content":{"rendered":"

England cricket supremo Rob Key says captain Ben Stokes will be ready for the heat of the Ashes battle in Australia despite a lack of action following a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

Talismanic all-rounder Stokes has not played any cricket since July, missing the final Test against India at the Oval, which the tourists won to level the series at 2-2.<\/p>\n

But the 34-year-old was this week named to lead the squad for the five Tests against arch-rivals Australia, starting in Perth on November 21.<\/p>\n

Key, managing director of England men\u2019s cricket, told reporters on Wednesday that he had \u201cno issues\u201d with the skipper\u2019s lack of cricket.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of the 2025 Asia Cup exclusively LIVE on Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1 ><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think he had probably the best series he\u2019s had for us in the three years that (England coach) Brendon (McCullum), myself and Ben have been doing it,\u201d Key said, referring to the Tests against India.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the ball, certainly it\u2019s the best I\u2019ve seen him bowl for a long time, if not ever. And that was without playing a lot of cricket going into the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I have no issues with Ben Stokes at all. And he\u2019s generally the type of player that builds and everything he does gets himself ready for these big moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

England have not won the Ashes in Australia since 2010\/2011, under the captaincy of Andrew Strauss, and last lifted the urn at home in 2015.<\/p>\n

They have a terrible record on recent tours, losing 13 out of the past 15 Tests Down Under, with the other two matches finishing as draws.<\/p>\n

Hussey pumped for BIG summer of cricket | 07:10<\/p>\n

The tourists have picked an attack full of pacemen<\/a> they believe can inflict damage on Australia\u2019s vulnerable top order and Key said he was excited by the prospect of unleashing express bowlers Jofra Archer and Mark Wood.<\/p>\n

Wood returns after missing the whole of the English season<\/a> with a knee injury, while fellow quick Archer is only two Tests into his comeback in the format.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m probably more excited than anyone who\u2019s got to face them, really, so fingers crossed,\u201d said Key.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked so hard to get to this point. It\u2019s the last little step now. So, we get this bit right and then hopefully we\u2019ve got every option available to us going into that first Test match at Perth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat may be Wood and Archer, maybe not. But to have that battery of bowlers, every single one of them fit, I\u2019m still fingers crossed for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other seamers on the plane will be Stokes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue.<\/p>\n

England unveil power packed Ashes squad | 05:23<\/p>\n

Key said the pace bowlers were growing in confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a bowling attack on the up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we played against India, it was a very inexperienced bowling attack.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou\u2019re starting to see a bowling attack where some of these bowlers who haven\u2019t played 10 Test matches are now starting to think, \u2018This is what\u2019s required in Test cricket, this is where I need to go to be one of the best in the world\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the potential to do that. They\u2019re on the start of that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key said he could not wait for the Ashes to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is going to be one of the best series for a long, long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really tough, but I\u2019m so excited to see what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the first Test in Perth, there are further games in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England cricket supremo Rob Key says captain Ben Stokes will be ready for the heat of the Ashes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-166902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}