Ben Stokes back for England as Chris Woakes makes Ashes warning

The build-up to the first Test, which gets under way in Brisbane next Wednesday, has been overshadowed by racism and sexism scandals.

English cricket has been engulfed by claims of institutional racism, while Tim Paine stepped down from his role as Australia captain last month following sexting revelations.

Woakes said: “Whatever goes on the field, goes on the field, 
and an Ashes series raises that rivalry.

“I think what’s happened in both camps, a lot of the issues are personal and cricket is played best when that sort of stuff is left to the side and we let the skills do the talking, which I’m sure will happen.

“In my experience, playing in three Ashes series, it’s not overstepped the line once when I’ve been around.

“I don’t see it being any different. I’m sure the cricket will be hard-fought, as it always is, and it will be a great series to watch.”

Woakes says England are ready to meet the twin-pronged challenge of bowling with the Kookaburra ball and trying to dismiss Australia’s star batsman Steve Smith.

The former Australia captain was named man of the series in the 2019 Ashes in England, scoring three hundreds and three fifties for a total of 774 runs at an average of 110.57.

“I’ve bowled at Steve quite a lot. He’s a world-class player and had a lot of success against us as an England team,” said Woakes.

“We’ve got to figure out ways to keep him quiet because, relatively speaking, when he does well Australia do well.

“I feel I have got him a few times but he’s probably been on 150 at the time!

“It would be nice to get him a little bit earlier and we need some good plans against him.”

On comparing the Kookaburra ball to the Dukes, which is used in England, Woakes said: “It’s very different to what we’re used to back home.

“But we’ve got a lot of experienced guys who have played all around the world and used the Kookaburra quite a bit.

“So I suppose we’ll touch base with those guys and see what works.

“It’s trying to experiment different things with it because trying to get the ball to move sideways is probably the biggest challenge here. But obviously trying to get the ball off the straight is quite important.

“You naturally bowl a bit shorter here, but you don’t want to get drawn into bowling too short. Whichever team adapts to the (Gabba) pitch will probably come out on top.”

England did get some action on Thursday as the touring England Lions reached 226 for four against them at Wellington Point in Queensland.

Ben Stokes, playing for the first time since taking an indefinite break from all cricket in July to prioritise his mental well-being and rest a finger which he had fractured, took two wickets.