Nathan Lyon: "I'm expecting Ben Stokes to play in the Ashes"

Stokes is taking an indefinite break from the game - both for mental health reasons and to work on his rehabilitation from a broken finger which has resulted in a pair of operations over recent months

Australia offspinner Nathan Lyon says he and his teammates are expecting to come up against Ben Stokes in the upcoming Ashes series, even though the England allrounder has not been selected in the travelling squad.

Stokes is taking an indefinite break from the game, both for mental health reasons and to work on his rehabilitation from a broken finger which has resulted in a pair of operations over recent months.

The Test vice-captain was not picked in either the England touring party or the supporting England Lions group for this winter's tour, but that has not stopped Lyon from preparing to face a familiar foe.

“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.

“You want to play against the best players in the world and Stokesy is the best allrounder in the world. He’s an X-factor and he’s a gamechanger, and you want to play against these players, so I’m expecting Stokes to be here.”

^{Nathan Lyon is looking forward to the Ashes campaign}

Stokes has recently returned to the nets as he steps up his recovery from his injury issues, and has excited fans on social media by posting pictures and videos of him with bat and ball in hand. 

However, the ECB have not put a timeframe on his return to the national setup. 

Lyon has already been doing his homework on the England squad.

“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,” he said. “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.”

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