Ashes: Ahead of ‘biggest series’, Ben Stokes tells England 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.