BUZZING BEN’S BACK!

ENGLAND STAR STOKES TO JOIN ASHES PARTY

IT took just five words for ‘buzzing’ Ben Stokes to give England hope that they might not be facing a third successive away Ashes thrashing after all. ‘I am ready for Australia,’ said England’s talisman in an ECB statement yesterday and the biggest Test series of them all suddenly looked a lot less like a foregone conclusion. Such is the importance to England of their best player, who was added to their already enlarged Ashes squad and will leave for a spell of quarantine in Queensland with the rest of their Test specialists and the Lions on November 4. It looked likely that

Stokes, who took an indefinite break last summer, would join the Ashes squad at some point the moment he started posting upbeat pictures and videos of him batting and bowling pain free after a second operation on a serious finger injury. But what was unexpected was that he has been cleared by England’s medical specialists to travel from the start and is now set to make his first Test appearance at the Gabba on December 8 since he faced India at Ahmedabad in March. ‘I’m buzzing for the Ashes,’ said Stokes yesterday in his Daily Mirror column. ‘To be able to confirm that I would be available to join the tour from the start was a great moment. I didn’t realise how much of an issue the finger was until I got it sorted the second time round. But I had also been struggling with bubble life and events off the field. ‘I don’t want anyone to feel the way I did because I wasn’t in a good place and I’m not afraid to admit it. ‘I was in a real dark place and having some difficult thoughts. I was always one of those people who wouldn’t talk about how they are feeling and just keep it internal and crack on. I now realise talking is such a powerful thing and it has completely changed me. ‘I feel much better about everything from my finger to my mental well-being. I know I can focus once again on playing my best cricket Down Under this winter.’ Stokes, 30, has not played since his second