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England captain Ben Stokes called Steve Smith and Joe Root the greatest batsmen of their generation Thursday and said keeping the Australian skipper quiet was crucial to winning the Ashes. Ahead of today’s first Test in Perth, Australia’s Smith and England’s Root share 24,020 Test runs between them and 75 centuries.But while Root is yet to score a ton on Australian soil and averages just 35.68, Smith has been potent at home. He averages an ominous 59.70 against England, including 18 hundreds.“Not too much has changed because he (Smith) just gets runs against us, doesn’t he?” Stoke said when asked if he had noticed any weakness to exploit.“That seems to be a constant – a serious player, has been for a very long time.“Him and Joe Root, neck-and-neck in my opinion in terms of the greatest batters of this generation.“You always want to come up with ways to try and keep the best players quiet. And that’s something that obviously we’re going to have to do.It’ll be a hard thing to be able to do,” he added.“But if we can keep Steve Smith, minus all the other guys in the batting order, quiet, then we’ve given ourselves a good chance to achieve in the goal that we want.”Smith will lead Australia for the third time this year in Pat Cummins’ absence when the Ashes get under way.The 36-year-old’s full-time reign as skipper came to an end over the South Africa ball-tampering controversy in 2018, but he has consistently filled in since.Sure to send a scare through the England camp, his average is an incredible 68.98 in his 40 Tests as Australia captain.Smith scored a century for New South Wales last month after not picking up a bat for six weeks, and said he was in a good place.“I’m pretty chilled,” he said. “I think I’ve learned a lot over my journey.“The last couple of times that I’ve stood in for Patty (Cummins) I’ve tried to be pretty relaxed and let the game play.“Obviously I’ve got to do it my own way out there and have my own style. But I’m a lot more relaxed these days, chilled, and you know, let the guys go about their work.”

Captain Ben Stokes brushed off concerns about England's Ashes preparations on Wednesday, saying there was no way the squad could prepare in the same way touring teams of the past had, given the demands of the modern game.England great Ian Botham raised questions on Tuesday about the preparations for the opening test, which amount to a few days' squad training followed by an internal match in Perth before the series opener begins in the same city on November 21."I don't really know what we're supposed to do, to be honest," Stokes told reporters at Lilac Hill Park, where the internal match will begin on Thursday."The schedule is pretty jam packed to be able to sort of prepare how teams probably would have 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago, I think there's a lot of factors that have changed over the years in cricket."We've been preparing for this for a very long time. Come the 21st of this month, we know that we would've done everything that is possible that we could've done to be in the right place to go out there and hopefully start the tour how we want."PACE DUO BRING X-FACTORStokes said he was fit and raring to go with both bat and ball and was particularly looking forward to watching England pacemen Mark Wood and Jofra Archer at work."It's great to have the X factor that Jofra and Woody possess in terms of pace," he added."Woody's obviously got over his knee surgery that he had quite a while ago. He's overcome that and he's looking really, really good. Jofra has been out the park for two and a half years now, so it's great seeing those two flying in and sending some fastballs down there."While much of the focus has been on that duo, Stokes said there was plenty of other fast-bowling talent in the squad."It's not just about pace, it's about skill," he said."We're fortunate enough that we've got a battery of fast bowlers who not only bowl with good pace, but are also extremely skillful in any conditions."We feel that we picked a really, really good, strong bowling group that have complementary skills, that can support each other. It's going to be tough five games so it's nice having a battery of fast bowlers to choose from."Stokes said he had found the war of words that has already ignited around the series "quite funny" but had also warned some of the less experienced players how challenging it is to play an Ashes series Down Under."Coming to Australia for the Ashes is a lot different than anything else .... There's a lot more that goes on away from the cricket itself," Stokes said."It's just making everyone aware that's the case but making sure it's nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be scared of, and not to shy away from the opportunity that's in front of us."