Matured Stokes is England's heartbeat: Ponting

A matured Ben Stokes represents "the heartbeat" of England's Test team, and Australia's ability to curb his influence early in the series will go a long way to deciding the upcoming Ashes, says Test great Ricky Ponting.

During a World Cup to savour for the Englishman, Stokes confirmed his reputation as one of the world's dominant allrounders in any format, and Ponting believes the cricket world is seeing an improved, refined version of the player who first arrived on the international scene almost eight years ago.

"It seems like he's playing with a lot of maturity," he told cricket.com.au. "He doesn't seem like he's in much of a rush now as he might have been.

"The thing about his personality as well, he's a big, strong, brash guy with a bit of an ego … and I think as a younger person probably everything was flat out – one speed.

"To me, (during the World Cup) it seems like he (was) able to understand situations and play situations accordingly. That's a bit of maturity and understanding his own game and understanding what his team needs him to do."

Stokes missed the 2017-18 Ashes in Australia due to his ongoing involvement in a court case following a street fight in Bristol, and since his return to Test cricket following that series, he is yet to register a century or take a five-wicket haul in 13 matches.

However, Ponting is wary of what a damaging impact he can have with bat or ball – comparing him to English great Andrew Flintoff – and stressed the importance of Australia limiting his impact early in the series. 

"He's a very, very good player," he said. "Some of the innings I've seen him play in Test cricket have been as good a ball striking innings as we've seen from the best batsman in the world.

"He can back it up with the ball and if he's not one of the best fielders in the world at the moment, I'll be very surprised.

"He's a key man and more a key man because I think he's that real heartbeat for their team, a bit like 'Freddie' Flintoff in Ashes series gone by – whenever they were in trouble and they needed something, they tend to go to those sort of guys, and Australia need to keep him quiet if we're going to win the series.

"I think it's important that the Australian players don't let him find (form) early in the series. There are certain players you know that you've just got to hopefully get on top early … Stokes is one that I think they need to … make sure that he doesn't get away from (them) – and he doesn't have much of an impact on the series.

"His Test record hasn't been great of late, he'll know that, he'll understand that and it's up to the Aussie boys to make sure that they don't let him dominate the series."

2019 Qantas Ashes Tour of England

Tour match: Hick XII v Haddin XII, July 23-26

First Test: Edgbaston, August 1-5

Tour match: Australians v Worcestershire, August 7-9

Second Test: Lord's, August 14-18

Third Test: Headingley, August 22-26

Tour match: Australians v Derbyshire, August 29-31

Fourth Test: Old Trafford, September 4-8

Fifth Test: The Oval, September 12-16