Ben Stokes: England are changing so we can win back Ashes

England captain Ben Stokes says his side have radically rebooted their selection, strategy and rhetoric with the aim of winning back the Ashes urn in Australia next winter.

Stokes’s Bazballers return to action against West Indies at Lord’s on Wednesday, four months after a “hiccup” in India that saw them lose four Tests in a row having taken a 1-0 lead.

Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, who have been in charge for two years, have insisted their team is “not results-driven”, and wants to focus on the “here and now”.

England have made sweeping selection changes in a bid to refresh their team and ensure young players do not turn up in Australia cowed by a lack of experience. 

They have retired their greatest fast bowler James Anderson, who plays his last Test this week, and dropped wicketkeeper Ben Foakes and spinner Jack Leach for much younger county understudies in Jamie Smith and Shoaib Bashir respectively. Jonny Bairstow and Ollie Robinson have also been dropped, possibly for good.

A bullish Stokes acknowledged that an Ashes focus represents a pivot to his strategy.

“I want us to be able to take a squad out there that I know is going to go at Australia,” said Stokes. “I’ll be nearly four years as captain when we go out there, I want to go out there knowing we’ve done everything possible over this 18-month period to go out there with a strong enough squad to not just compete with Australia, but to beat them.

“This is probably the first time you’ve heard me speak like that about something so far away, but again it goes back to progression as a side. I want this team to progress over the 18 months, so I’m focusing on that because I want us to go out to Australia and win the Ashes back.”

Given the Ashes comes at the end of an epic 2025 that will also see them host India for five Tests, the Ashes could also signal the end of Stokes and McCullum’s time in charge.

By the time England travel to Australia, it will be a decade since they last won the Ashes, including a drawn series at home last summer which saw them come back from 2-0 down. The fallout from that remarkably eventful series has lasted a year, fuelled by each side releasing a behind the scenes documentary. When England’s landed last week, Stokes found himself drawn into a social media spat with the Australian media, evidence of an enmity between the two teams.

Stokes wants to prepare younger bowlers for Australia

“Yeah, definitely I think you know we’ve had so such a long period since we’ve played Test cricket and when you have a long period of time you obviously start thinking about how can we progress this team forward, because that’s what we want to do now,” said Stokes, when asked if his selections had the Ashes in mind.

“We had to make some decisions around what we think is best for the team going into that series. We’ve got some amazing young, talented bowlers coming through in English cricket and we feel giving them the opportunity to go out there and get experience at the highest level will put us in a much better position come Australia because we want to go out there and we want to get our own back.

“You have sometimes got to put personal relationships [with the likes of Anderson] to the side because for me the most important thing is what I think is best for the team. There’ll be some decisions I’m sure that people might not understand or might be frustrated by and that’s something that I’m absolutely fine with.”

Stokes said that despite this, his team will not take their eye off the ball against West Indies.

“Hopefully no one’s thinking and going, ‘oh, they’re not focusing on the here and now’,” he said. “We’ve got a three-match series against West Indies and then a little break and then a three-match series against Sri Lanka. We are always planning for the teams that we are playing against.

“We know that West Indies are a very dangerous team. They always come here and always make it hard work for us. We know how passionate they are about cricket, in particular playing against England. So yeah, we don’t take any opposition lightly.”

West Indies confirmed their XI a day out from the first Test. They have handed the debut to 23-year-old opener Mikyle Louis, who becomes the first man from St Kitts to play Test cricket (his brother, fast bowler Jeremiah, is also in the squad.

Despite an injury to Kemar Roach, they have a dangerous seam attack featuring the experience of Alzarri Joseph and Jason Holder, and the raw pace of Shamar Joseph and Jayden Seales, while Gudakesh Movie gets the nod over Kevin Sinclair as spinner. The top order looks green, besides captain Kraigg Brathwaite, who plays his 90th Test. The rest of the top five have played nine Tests between them.

New cut-throat era of Bazball starts here 

There has been a hardening towards England as the glow of the early Bazball days has worn off and the lack of wins stacked up.

Just ask James Anderson, a great dragged into retirement this week. Or Ollie Robinson, a bowler averaging 22 in Test cricket but dumped from the squad for Dillon Pennington who does not even have an England contract. Ben Foakes and Jack Leach were dropped for players behind them in the pecking order at their own counties. Jonny Bairstow, the architect of Bazball in 2022, has been told to go and score runs for Yorkshire.

The 4-0 defeat in India marked the halfway point of the Stokes-McCullum years, a crossroads on the way to the next Ashes.

The transformation of a broken team that had won one in 17 Tests into entertainers who smoked 10 victories in their next 11 captured cricket fans all over. But it hit a juddering halt against better opposition in 2023. Four wins in 12 with six defeats prompted criticism and need to change.

“Everything is very cosy. Everyone is mates: players, coaches, backroom staff. That does not breed an environment of ruthlessness,” wrote Michael Vaughan for Telegraph Sport, after the India loss.

Stokes has remodelled side to become Ashes winners

Ben Stokes responded with a cut-throat approach to selection and a total pivot from staying in the moment to openly planning for the next Ashes.

It begins on Wednesday at Lord’s in the opening Test against West Indies, the first of six matches at home against opposition they are expected to beat (Sri Lanka are to follow in a three Test series) as the second half of the Stokes captaincy takes shape.

Speaking to Stokes this week it is clear the hardest decision was over Leach. He made a project out of turning a sheepish figure into one who believed he belonged in the England side but he is out for the promise of Bashir. “Jack took the news like a champion,” said Stokes. If Stokes is dropping Jack, then he means business..

Now this is Stokes’s team. Back is Harry Brook for his first Test since the Oval last summer, Stokes balances the team again as a bowling allrounder and in Jamie Smith they have a batsman keeping wicket who has been compared to a young Joe Root at the crease. 

Smith keeps ahead of Foakes, the best in the world according to Stokes, because it was the most expedient way to find a place in the XI and a future up the order is much more likely. Ollie Pope is under pressure. Stokes has the taste for change in his mouth and Pope, his vice-captain, needs to be consistent otherwise Smith could ease past him or Dan Lawrence, the spare batsman in the squad who is highly rated by the captain.

Gus Atkinson makes a Test debut against West Indies after five Tests as drinks carrier in India, bringing youth to a lopsided attack. Anderson, 188 Tests, and Woakes, 49, take the new ball on a ground where they both have fine records, with Stokes possible first change. Then there is a huge drop off in experience to Atkinson and Bashir, both playing Test cricket for the first time in England. This match is Bashir’s first at Lord’s.

Stokes does have a golden touch with debutants and all the focus on Anderson means the younger bowlers can settle in easier.

Smith will find keeping at Lord’s hard, he has done it four times before but all in T20 when the ball does not often go through to the keeper. The slope, the wobble after the ball passes bat has made mugs of keepers with far more experience than him. And any fumble or drop off Anderson will be raked over by and held up as another example of this England putting potential flair above substance.

It will be a good early test of whether Smith can stand the scrutiny of Test cricket, the unknowable factor that fells so many. His presence at seven ahead of Foakes does make the batting stronger, and Brook for Bairstow is a step up too these days.

It will be crucial because England must bat West Indies out of the game. Their attack with the preciousness of Shamar Joseph and Alzarri Joseph, bounce and accuracy of Jason Holder, and pace of Jayden Seales, who put the frighteners in April on county batsmen while playing for Sussex, could suck England into a shootout and then it is anyone’s game.

England are bottom of the world Test championship. It is skewed by playing the best two teams and some draconian over-rate penalties. Teams are punished if they bowl 80 overs. While Australia’s over rate was no quicker than England’s, they batted slower so England bowled more overs, and racked up the deductions. England rarely lasted 80 overs so Australia were let off.

It is one of the small factors that shows England can be loose, bored by the small details in the rush to entertain and have fun. The look to dominate will not change, rightly so. It just needs refining, and to be a little more streetwise. It started with selection. Now it needs to show in results.