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Brendon McCullum says Ben Stokes is training ‘his arse off’ for the 2025 Ashes in Australia, with Mark Wood also ‘progressing well’.
Ben Stokes is recovering from a shoulder injury. (AP Photo)
Brendon McCullum believes England men’s Test captain Ben Stokes is ‘training his arse off’ to be fit in time for the 2025 Ashes in Australia. The head coach reaffirmed that Stokes was quite important for England to be ‘competitive’ down under, saying the all-rounder won’t leave any stone unturned to be in that position.
Stokes was ruled out of the fifth Test against India in the summer due to a grade-three muscle tear in his right shoulder. He’s not expected to play any competitive games until the Ashes, missing the entire home domestic season. The 2025-26 Ashes begins on November 21 at the Perth Stadium.
“Stokesy will be training his arse off as he always does, and making sure he gets as fit as what he possibly can…” McCullum said on Monday, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “The last series we saw from Stokesy is probably the best series he’s had as captain, so that’s a good sign. We know that for us to be competitive down in Australia, a fit, firing and motivated Ben Stokes is going to give us every chance,” he added.
McCullum also confirmed that pacer Mark Wood, who missed the India series entirely, was ‘progressing well’. Unlike Stokes, he is expected to start for Durham in the County Championship later this month.
We’ll give Archer every chance for ‘biggest series of our lives’: McCullum
Another important player for the Ashes — which McCullum labeled as the ‘biggest series of our lives’ — would be Jofra Archer. The quick has recovered from multiple bouts of injuries over the past few years and all of it seemed to be worth it when he ran through South Africa with a four-wicket spell in Southampton on Sunday.
“That was an unbelievable spell,” McCullum said. “It was box-office bowling…[It’s] not just his pace, but his skill, his ability to shift it both ways and to test batters with the steep bounce he gets. He’s a proper cricketer, hence why we’ve taken our time with him to make sure that we give him every chance to be in the biggest series of all of our lives,” the coach added.
“It’s always a delicate balance. Sometimes you need to keep bowling and you need to keep ticking over. I think a lot of injuries happen when you almost down the tools completely, not that I really understand how that works… He’s going to be a huge player when we get to Australia, as a number of others are. But I don’t think we’ll wrap him up [in cotton wool] per se. We’ll just keep working with him on how he’s going and work out what’s best for him.”
September 08, 2025, 17:10 IST
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