Stokes eager to tone down Ashes talk and focus on here and now

England captain regrets paying too much lip service to showdown with Australia with 'massive' series to come

- Guardian staff

England are about to complete their busiest year of Test cricket with Ben Stokes encouraged by the overhaul in personnel that has taken place. Although the captain has a small regret from this period: publicly discussing the next Ashes series.

The third Test against New Zealand that starts in Hamilton tonight will be England's 17th in 2024, matching only their fixture list in 2016 by way of volume. That year saw a jaded Alastair Cook quit the captaincy but while Stokes called 2024 "a long, tough slog", the 33-year-old completes it looking personally rejuvenated.

The same goes for a side that finished 2023 with an average age of 32 and has since shaved that figure by nearly five years. The retirements of Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali - plus the decision to move on from Jonny Bairstow - account for much of this shift, while the subsequent arrivals of Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jamie Smith and Shoaib Bashir have largely vindicated the policy also.

Ordering an all-time great such as Anderson to step aside at the start of the summer was not straightforward, however, and it took some explaining publicly. And it was here where Stokes found himself using the 2025-26 Ashes - and the likelihood a seamer already in his forties would not make it that far - as the overriding justification.