Lyon expects and hopes to face Stokes in the Ashes

Stokes
missed
England’s
home
contests
against
India
earlier
in
2021
after
announcing
in
July
he
was
taking
time
off
for
his
mental
wellbeing
and
to
allow
a
broken
index
finger
to
recover.

A
second
operation
on
that
injury
earlier
this
month
preceded
Stokes
being
left
out
of
an
initial
17-man
squad
for
the
five-Test
Ashes
series,
which
begins
on
December
8
in
Brisbane,
though
he
has
since
posted
footage
of
him
batting
and
bowling

While
a
continued
omission
for
Stokes,
who
is
also
not
with
England
for
the
T20
World
Cup,
would
obviously
be
a
boost
for
Australia,
Lyon
remains
hopeful
he
will
go
head-to-head
with
one
of
the
best
in
the
game.

“I’m
expecting
him
to
come.
I’m
expecting
Stokes
to
be
out
here
and,
to
be
honest,
I
hope
he
is,”
Lyon
told
reporters
at
the
Hurtsville
Oval
in
Sydney,
where
the
NSW
Blues
were
playing
an
intra-squad
practice
match.

“You
want
to
play
against
the
best
players
in
the
world
and
Stokesy
is
the
best
all-rounder
in
the
world.

“He’s
an
X-factor
and
he’s
a
game-changer,
and
you
want
to
play
against
these
players,
so
I’m
expecting
Stokes
to
be
here.”

Stokes
has
4631
runs
in
71
Tests
and
a
batting
average
of
37.04.
With
the
ball,
he
has
163
wickets
at
an
average
of
31.38.

His
absence
would
be
a
blow
to
an
England
batting
line-up
many
feel
is
lacking
in
quality
depth.

That
is
not
an
opinion
shared
by
Lyon,
though,
who
says
he
has
a
few
surprises
up
his
sleeve
for
Australia’s
greatest
cricketing
enemy.

“I’ve
always
got
a
couple
of
mystery
balls,”
he
said.
“That’s
been
the
beauty
about
this
pre-season,
it’s
been
my
first
ever
proper
pre-season.

“I’ve
been
able
to
do
a
lot
of
fitness
work
and
a
lot
of
skills
work.
I’ve
already
started
looking
at
a
couple
of
England’s
batters,
so
that’s
exciting.

“They’ve
got
some
very
talented
batters
early
in
their
Test
careers.
Look
at
Ollie
Pope’s
last
red-ball
game.
He
got
a
pretty
big
double-hundred.

“It’s
going
to
be
a
different
challenge
for
these
guys,
coming
out
to
Australia
and
we
want
that.”