Stokes vows to 'protect' players, Archer out of Ashes

An emotional Ben Stokes vowed to close ranks around his players amid ongoing fallout from their mid-Ashes Noosa getaway, as England's tour went from bad to worse after Jofra Archer became their latest bowler to go down with injury.

A pace attack hyped as the quickest England have ever brought here has now seen its two fastest pacemen go down with tour-ending injuries as Archer was revealed to have suffered a side strain during last week's Adelaide Test.

Mark Wood was sent home with a knee injury last month after bowling just 11 overs for the tour, with Archer now joining him having sent down 80 overs across the first three Tests. The 30-year-old has endured an injury-plagued career and spent four years on the sidelines before returning in July.

Gus Atkinson has replaced him in the visitors' XI while Jacob Bethell has replaced misfiring No.3 Ollie Pope for the Boxing Day Test. Pope is averaging 20.83 with the bat for the series.

England XI for fourth Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue

But Ben Duckett, the subject of an ECB investigation after footage purportedly showing the 31-year-old intoxicated between the second and third Tests emerged this week, has held his spot despite averaging 16 for the series.

Cricket boss Rob Key held a pitch-side conversation with Duckett as England players inspected the MCG wicket on Wednesday after the ECB confirmed it was "establishing the facts" regarding the Duckett video.

"We are aware of content circulating on social media," read an England and Wales Cricket Board's statement issued in response to a video that purports to 

"We have high expectations for behaviour, accepting that players are often under intense levels of scrutiny, with established processes that we follow when conduct falls below expectations. We also support players that need assistance."

Key had told the UK media earlier this week, before the Duckett footage was posted online, that the team's drinking habits would be looked into as the team's trip to Queensland's Sunshine Coast after going down 2-0 in Brisbane continues to come under scrutiny.

In 2017, Duckett was fined $2,700 for pouring a drink over Jimmy Anderson's head in a Perth bar on an England Lions tour. He was suspended for the rest of the tour as the ECB gave him a "final written warning".

On the field this summer, Duckett has been a major disappointment having not passed 30 in six innings having arrived in Australia as one of Test cricket's leading openers.

But England had no one to replace him with even if they wanted to; Bethell was their only back-up batter in their 16-man squad and Pope was the batter the tourists wanted to axe.

Stokes, who missed the 2017-18 Ashes while he was the subject of a police investigation over a Bristol street-brawl, said he knew first-hand how a public pile-on can affect people. Stokes was found not guilty of affray in August 2018.

The star allrounder stressed he would stand by his players at all costs.

"It's never a nice place to be in when, not only the media world but also the social media world, is just piling on top of you. It's a very tough place to be in as an individual," Stokes told reporters.

"When you're 3-0 down and you've lost the series, everything you say, everything you do gets scrutinised – and rightly so.

"You don't really have a leg to stand on when you've lost three games in a huge series like this. When you win, everything's great, when you're losing, it's not."

Stokes admitted he had his work cut out to keep his players' focus on winning the final two Tests of the series. His players appeared in good spirits at training two days out for a Boxing Day Test which could see 2013-14's record Ashes crowd of 91,082 toppled.

The 34-year-old, who conceded his teammates were "hurting" after squandering this Ashes series in 11 days, the equal-fastest ever, had opened his pre-Test press conference with an impassioned defence of his group.

"I'm obviously aware of the reports and everything circulating around right now," said Stokes.

"My main concern right now is with my players. How I handle this moment right now is the most important thing to me. The welfare of everyone in there – and probably some certain individuals as well – is the most important thing to me right now.

"This kind of stuff – I don't know if 'close to me' is the right wording – but is something that I have first-hand experience of how it can affect people, and my role as England captain is to protect my players as much as I possibly can.

"We have a goal still to try and achieve out here on this trip. It's not gone anywhere near to plan whatsoever but we've still got two games of cricket to play. We've still got a lot of efforts and energies to put in for the remaining of this tour.

"Looking after my players is one of the main things that I need to get out of this, because we need to go out there and win two games of cricket.

"I will always protect my players as much as I possibly can and right here, right now, that is my main job as England captain, is to ensure that they have my backing."

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (fourth Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

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