Stokes fires back at brutal Hayden barbs

Suspended England allrounder Ben Stokes has hit back in the Ashes war of words after condescending comments from Australia Test legend Matthew Hayden.

Retired Australia opener Hayden, speaking on a Brisbane Heat podcast, described the England squad as "a rabble" on the eve of the first Test at the Gabba.

"I look down half of the list and I honestly don't even know who half of these guys are," Hayden said in comments that were inevitably going to get English blood boiling.

Hayden said the tourists only had four genuine stars in their team, in the form of batsmen Alastair Cook and captain Joe Root, as well as pacemen Stuart Broad and James Anderson.

"Apart from that, you throw a blanket over those four, who are they?" Hayden said.

"If I was the (Australian) captain I'd be saying to Mitch Starc that when those four (English) players are there, you are just there to break them."

"Whatever it takes, break them, especially at the Gabba.

"If any one of those guys go, England have got no hope. And I don't think they have any hope anyway."

Stokes, who has not travelled with the squad pending a police investigation into a drunken incident in September, was quick to fire back at Hayden on social media.

Stokes will not be considered for selection by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) until the conclusion of a police investigation following the player's arrest on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm in Bristol in September.

Amid reports the 26-year-old will eventually join the England squad in Australia, spinner Nathan Lyon said that while he preferred to face the best, he is unfazed by whether Stokes plays or not.

"You want to play against the best players in the world. He's definitely, if not the best all-rounder in the world, [then one of]," Lyon said.

"It's disappointing that he's not here for the first Test but there's rumours that he's coming out.

"That's up to England and I don't really care what they do about that if I'm being brutally honest.

"He's a world-class player, you want to play against the best players in the world so if he comes out, we'll have our plans for him and we'll go out and play some cricket."

Lyon himself fanned the flames ahead of the first Test in Brisbane from Thursday, saying some English players remain scarred from their last Ashes series in Australia.

"Could we end some careers? I hope so," Lyon told English journalists.

"I know Joe Root got dropped last time when he was here so it would be good to get him dropped again.

"'If we can start by opening up that crack, it's pretty crucial.

"There's a lot of scars for the English guys, especially coming over here, especially when we have two guys bowling 150kmh and not just one now."

Lyon accused some England batsmen of being frightened when facing pace ace Mitchell Johnson during Australia's 5-0 home series whitewash in 2013-14.

"Seeing Mitchell Johnson scare all the Poms was unbelievable," Lyon said.

"I was at leg slip and I nearly had to push a couple of the guys back towards the stumps.

"Leading into Perth we knew that they were broken. We knew Matt Prior wanted to fly home before the game started and he was one of the senior players. He was scared."

With agencies