England men's last overseas Test before the 2025-26 Ashes takes place in Hamilton this week - but Ben Stokes has urged his team not to get distracted by next winter's assignment in Australia.
The warning comes as England prepare for their final Test against New Zealand at Seddon Park this week - their 17th of the year - as they look to cap off 2024 with a 3-0 clean sweep. Their next assignment will come in May, a one-off Test against Zimbabwe, before a huge five-match series with India. Though the Ashes glow brightly on the horizon, the captain has reiterated head coach Brendon McCullum's mantra, to "be where your feet are".
Stokes has overseen a transitional year with the red-ball set-up. There have been seven debuts, with Gus Atkinson, Jamie Smith and Shoaib Bashir becoming mainstays. Winter debutants Brydon Carse and Jacob Bethell have made strong cases to remain part of the XI, particularly against the Black Caps - Carse as the series' leading wicket taker (16) and Bethell as the team's second-highest runscorer (172 at 57.33). While Carse is 29, the rest are mid-twenties and younger: Atkinson 26, Smith 24, while Bashir and Bethell are both 21.
The collateral has been an experienced core of players moved on, including Test cricket's leading wicket-taker James Anderson at the start of the home summer. Indeed, it was while addressing Anderson's enforced retirement after his 188th and final Test cap, against West Indies at Lord's, that Stokes explained the move to refresh the team was done with a view to competing in the next Ashes.
"We had to make some decisions around what we think is best for the team going into that Ashes series," Stokes said at the time. "We want to go out there and we want to get that urn back."
While there was plenty of blowback from pensioning off Anderson, the motivation was sound. Hard though they pushed Australia in 2023's home series - in which Anderson took five wickets at 85.40 - the 2-2 draw saw England fall short of a first Ashes win since 2015. That disappointment, wrapped up with the 4-1 series defeat to India at the start of 2024 put the onus on finding players who could perform in all conditions - particularly those they will face next winter.
Stokes says he now regrets those comments made at Lord's. While he insists those words have not impacted the team, there is a suggestion the management are wary of players looking too far ahead and possibly overlooking the challenges in front of them.
"I know whenever we spoke about Australia there is a lot looking towards that, but there are still massive series before that," Stokes said. "We have India. And I think through my own fault, I maybe spoke a little too much about the Ashes and putting too much emphasis on that series, considering how much cricket we had to play before that.
"I quite like staying in the present, in the moment. But it is quite tough when you've got an Ashes coming around the corner.
"I've been involved in quite a few of those now and you do always look at the calendar and think 'oh it's nearly here'. It's just hard to avoid. But I think just making sure I keep my focus on being in the here-and-now and what we've got coming up. And then, when the Ashes is our next series, then we will focus on it."
On the field, it has broadly been a positive year for England. They will finish with a winning record regardless of the result in Saturday's Test in Hamilton, having won 9 out of 16 thus far, with three series victories. But the 4-1 and 2-1 losses away to India and Pakistan, respectively, still smart, particularly having been 1-0 up on both occasions.
"Seventeen (Tests) in a year is a lot when you add the other cricket," Stokes added. "A long tough slog but a really good year. Played some good cricket, found some extraordinarily talented players who have shown they're capable of delivering big performances on the biggest stage, which is playing for your country. So overall, really happy."
The year has also been one of discovery for Stokes, both of the limits of his body, and of areas to improve as a captain - two facets which have been intrinsically linked.
A return to bowling as an allrounder following knee surgery at the end of 2023 was interrupted by a hamstring injury, which resulted in him missing four Tests. That had knock-on effects in Pakistan when Stokes' mood had his team-mates "walking on eggshells".
He had reason to be on edge, after working flat out to regain full fitness, then having his house burgled during the second Test. But in the time between tours, both he and McCullum felt he had veered from being the leader he set out to be when taking charge in 2022.
Stokes began this New Zealand tour apologising for his conduct in Pakistan. He now ends it in similar fashion, sensitive to the fact that talk of the Ashes might have a distracting effect on the team.
"At the start of the tour where there was a learning curve for me as a captain, from my experience of Pakistan. And then looking back to then (his comments at Lord's), even speaking and saying stuff like that - we're so far away from what my leadership had been about. Staying present, staying where we are, and then worrying about stuff when we have to worry about.
"In leadership roles, you can maybe differ from where you first started, and think that's the right thing to be saying or be thinking about. Which then takes you away from a successful mindset, a successful way of speaking within the group. So, yeah, learning curves as a leader I guess."