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Former England bowler and BBC chief cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew:<\/b> “Frankly, I can’t see England winning the Ashes without Ben Stokes. <\/p>\n
“He’s a talismanic figure, a resourceful leader, but more than anything, his bowling is important. He’s critical in that department. All of the bowlers, including him, do have fitness concerns. <\/p>\n
“Stokes has to play four out of the five Tests for England to win.<\/p>\n
“For Australia, Travis Head will be an interesting character to watch. I think England are going to bombard him and bowl with great hostility at him. And he hasn’t had a great start to the Australian season. <\/p>\n
“Obviously, Steve Smith is crucial to their batting, but I think Head is too. There’s a lot of uncertainty about how Australia are going to bat and he can change the game in the course of an hour. <\/p>\n
“England will have some serious plans for Head – he’ll need to go and buy some extra padding, and he doesn’t play the short ball well. But if he does get away with it and does find a way of adapting to that attack, then I think he is potentially the most dangerous batsman in the Australian side.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n