Ashes 2021-22 | ‘I'm expecting him to come’ – Nathan Lyon on Ben Stokes’ possible arrival for the Ashes

Ben Stokes has been out of action since the home limited-overs series against Pakistan, having taken an indefinite break from the game to focus on mental health. After having opted out of the T20 World Cup 2021, Stokes was a notable omission in England’s 17-member Ashes squad.

He had, however, grabbed eyeballs on Instagram, after posting videos of him practicing in the nets.

Nathan Lyon expects England’s premier all-rounder to play a key role in the Ashes 2021-22, which gets underway on December 8 in Brisbane.

"I'm expecting him to come," Lyon said. "I hope he is. You want to play against the best players in the world.

"Stokesy is the best all-rounder in the world. He's an x-factor, a game changer, and you want to play against these sort of players."

Lyon, who suffered a concussion scare during New South Wales’ intrasquad game earlier this week, is up and ready to play next week's Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at Sydney's Drummoyne Oval.

His last competitive appearance came against India in Brisbane at the start of the year, and the off-spinner talked of the skills and variations he developed during the long break.

"A couple of mystery balls, always got a couple of mystery balls," he quipped. "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."

Australia retained the Ashes in 2019, when they drew 2-2 in England, having won the 2017-18 home series 4-0. Lyon believed that England boasts of quality young batsmen in their squad, who can challenge the hosts this time around.

"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. We want to challenge these guys for long periods of time."