"He's the most important man in this side": Ben Duckett weighs in on Stokes' importance in England squad

Duckett is full of praise for Stokes' intense training, saying he's never seen anyone train like Stokes is currently doing. Duckett described Stokes as being in "beast mode".

Australia will take on England in the opening fixtures of the Ashes on November 21 in Perth. Steve Smith will lead the side as Pat Cummins is not in the team due to injury.

"He's obviously probably the most important man in this side when he's bowling. So hopefully he stays fit for all five tests and he's bowling in all of them because he's crucial for us," Ben Duckett, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

"I can only say we've been out here for a few days, and he's been in beast mode. He has been running, bowling two spells, and batting for two hours. The way he trains and stuff these days is something that I've never seen before," Duckett added.

The Ashes series in Australia will be an extremely crucial one for England. For England, this will be their chance to win the first away Ashes series since 2011 and their first overall since 2015.

Duckett believes England will start the Ashes series without much "baggage" and praised Cummins as 'one of the best bowlers in the world'. Duckett felt that Cummins' absence in the first Test is an advantage for England.

"This group we've got, I actually saw the other day, I'm the fourth oldest, which was tough to see. So we've got quite a fresh group coming here where there's not a lot of baggage, which I think will help us," Duckett noted.

"You want to play against the best, and you don't want to have guys like that missing out in series like this. But on the flip side, I'm an opening batter and he's probably one of the best bowlers in the world. So yeah, quietly, I hope it's not too bad, but obviously any game where he's not playing is an advantage for us," he concluded.

Australia's First Test squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster.

England's squad: Ben Stokes (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Mark Wood. (ANI)