There are few bilateral series in the cricketing world that define careers as the Ashes between Australia and England does, for good or bad. As England prepare to take on Australia Down Under for the latest chapter of one of the oldest cricketing rivalries, its captain Ben Stokes has asked his team not to be “afraid”.Stokes urged England to approach the contest with clarity after selectors kept their options open by naming off-spinner Shoaib Bashir in a 12-man squad for the first Test.In September, England head coach Brendon McCullum had said this Ashes was “the biggest series of all our lives”. Stokes agreed, telling Sky Sports, “we’d be lying to ourselves” to say otherwise.“Definitely [the biggest series of our lives]. Everyone in the world, everyone in Australia and England, knows how big this is,” Stokes said, while talking to Sky Sports..He said he had underlined the scale of the series and asked his players to face it directly.“I think if we were to come out and not accept that, and say ‘it’s just another series’ we’d only be lying to ourselves, lying to the fact of what the series is. It’s looking it in the eyes, taking it on and not being afraid of the challenge,” Stokes said.England have not won a series in Australia since 2010-11. Since then they have lost 13 Tests and drawn two Down Under.The absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood from the first Test due to injuries has been viewed as an advantage for England, but Stokes dismissed that idea.“Australia are, and always will be, one of the biggest forces in Test cricket, cricket in general,” he said.“People may have swayed the result one way or the other with Pat and Josh missing the first Test but we don’t feel that way at all,” the England captain told Sky Sports.“They are a fiercely competitive nation when it comes to sport and we know whoever comes into the team are going to be tough to go up against.“We will be taking this game just as seriously as if Pat and Josh were playing.”England named their 12-man squad for the first Test, which begins on November 21 in Perth.
