Ben Stokes has hit back at the former England captains Ian Botham, Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan after they criticised his team’s Ashes preparations, calling them “has-beens” and insisting that “the landscape of cricket has changed”.
England begin their only warm-up match on Australian soil on Thursday against an England Lions team at Lilac Hill, a club ground in Perth’s suburbs, because the Waca has been requisitioned by Cricket Australia for a state match between Western Australia and Queensland. The Optus Stadium is being readied for the Test on Friday week.
Stokes, 34, confirmed that all 16 members of England’s party would feature in the 11-a-side fixture at Lilac Hill, spanning three days. “It will be a proper game and the next few days will be taken very seriously by us,” he said. “It’s balls to the wall for everyone, no easing into it. There’ll be a good run-out for everyone.”
So far England’s on-field preparations have amounted to several white-ball matches in New Zealand for around half the playing group, but Stokes was unrepentant.
“We have prepared incredibly well, all in different places and continents, but everyone has been preparing for this series for a long time now,” he said. “Come November 21, we will be good.
“Cricket’s changed so much and preparation is nowhere near as simple as it used to be. Now there’s so much cricket packed into the schedule it’s impossible to do it how it used to be done. I don’t know what else we’re expected to do. There’s [Sheffield] Shield cricket on at the moment so who [else] would we play against?
“There’s quite a few factors [as to] why we can’t prepare how the has-beens may have prepared in the past, but we are confident and comfortable with how we prepare. We leave no stone unturned.”
The England captain said that cricket’s packed calendar makes preparing for a five-Test series more challenging
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On a personal level, Stokes said he was confident of being able to play his part with the ball in the Test, but there was contrasting news out of the Australia camp as the pace bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott both left the state game they were playing in at Sydney to go for scans.
Hazlewood, who was playing his first four-day match of the season after a spate of white-ball games for Australia, reported tightness in his right hamstring, while Abbott was suffering from a sore left hamstring. Neither batted later in the day as New South Wales crashed to a heavy defeat by Victoria.
Hazlewood, 34, was cleared of a muscle strain and will train as planned in the build-up to the Test but Abbott, 33, was diagnosed with a moderate grade hamstring injury and has been withdrawn from Australia’s 15-man squad.
Hazlewood’s all-clear won’t alleviate concerns entirely: he has a shaky injury record in recent years, missing four Tests of the last Ashes series in Australia and three Tests against India last winter.
Unlike Hazlewood, who is sure to play if fit, Abbott was unlikely to have made the starting XI, but his absence creates further turbulence among a pace-bowling group already missing Pat Cummins for Perth as he races to return to bowling following a back injury.
England have won their first Test of all five of their overseas series since Stokes and the head coach Brendon McCullum took over in 2022, but they have not won the opening match of an Ashes series in Australia since Mike Gatting’s side triumphed in Brisbane in 1986.
Stokes himself has not played a competitive match since the fourth Test against India in late July, in which he tore muscles in his bowling shoulder. After letting the damage heal he went straight into rehab and says he never doubted he would be ready for this series.
“I was never worried that it was going to impact any preparation or anything like that, because I had such a long break,” he said. “I was devastated to miss that last game against India [but] I had no intention of playing any cricket after that. It could have happened at any time. When you’re an athlete, you’re always exposing yourself to dangers of injury and it’s a high-intensity role that I do.
“That’s all I’ve been doing for the last three months, making sure I’m fit, as I always do, and strong. Then when the Test series starts, [it’s] about being sensible through the rest periods because I’ve had three months of building up to get here. That’s where all the hard work goes in. As you get into a series, you taper off and just kick over between games.”
Asked if he was confident he could play a full role as seamer in the first Test, he said: “I’ve been bowling like that for two months.”
Stokes echoed the support given to Ollie Pope the previous day by the England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick, with Pope having lost the vice-captaincy to Harry Brook and facing competition for his No3 spot from Jacob Bethell.
Pope has batted at No3 in 32 of England’s 35 Test innings since the start of 2024
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“We have been very consistent with team selection, we know exactly what we want from the team we pick,” he said. “Popey has done a great job for us at No3 and he is the man in possession. But with nine days to go, there are a lot of things that can go right, and a lot can go wrong.
“Popey did an amazing job as vice-captain. He was incredibly valuable to me and has a great cricket brain. But Brooky’s taken the one-day job and it was the right time for him to come in and be vice-captain. It’s just a natural progression in terms of leadership of England.”
Stokes said his two fastest bowlers, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, were looking sharp in training: “It’s great to see those two flying in with some fast balls at our guys. It would be exciting [to have them in the same XI]. At the moment, the guys we’ve picked are in a really good place.” Lilac Hill will be Wood’s first game since February.
Stokes has been the target of some typical knockabout headlines from the local Western Australia press, but he has been on Ashes tours before and knows what to expect. This is where those with experience of past tours here — and there are only five of them in the squad, the fewest in any England Ashes tour party since 1970-71 — must advise the newcomers.
“It’s expected, that’s part of being in Australia,” Stokes added. “For me, coming here for the Ashes is different to anything else we play. It’s another one of those things we’re going to have to deal with, especially some of the guys out here for the first time.
“It’s letting them know it’s probably what it’s going to be like. It’s not just stuff out on the field that can get you, it’s also off-field stuff. It’s how you take it. I don’t think we’ll let that affect us too much.”