Australia has confirmed it will deploy the same psychological tactic that once defined its battles with Virat Kohli—deliberately refusing to “poke the bear”—this time targeting England captain Ben Stokes as the 2025/26 Ashes series begins with the first Test at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Friday. Acting captain Steve Smith openly admitted on Thursday that the hosts plan to keep Stokes quiet and avoid the kind of verbal provocation that has historically triggered match-defining performances from the all-rounder, particularly against Australia.

Speaking to media at the venue, Smith praised Stokes’ transformative influence on England’s aggressive “Bazball” approach under coach Brendon McCullum while making clear the tactical restraint his team intends to exercise. “He’s had a few performances against us where he’s either taken the game from us or clawed it back,” Smith said. “Hopefully we can keep him quiet.” The strategy echoes Australia’s long-standing policy during Kohli’s dominant Test years, when sledging the Indian superstar was largely avoided after it repeatedly backfired into centuries and fiery comebacks.

The most famous example of the danger of riling Stokes remains the 2019 Headingley Test, when a pre-match remark from David Warner about Stokes’ past legal troubles was followed by one of the greatest individual Ashes innings ever played. Facing near-certain defeat, Stokes produced an unbeaten 135 from 219 balls—including an extraordinary last-wicket partnership with Jack Leach—to chase down 359 and keep the series alive. Warner himself later acknowledged the mistake, recently stating that not provoking Stokes would “help the Australians enormously.”

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England opener Ben Duckett has taken the opposite view, publicly goading Australia to continue targeting his captain on the basis that it fires Stokes up. However, with memories of Headingley and subsequent Stokes heroics still fresh, Australia appears determined to starve him of that emotional fuel in what promises to be a fiercely contested series Down Under. As the teams finalised preparations under clear Perth skies, the opening salvos of the latest chapter of cricket’s oldest rivalry were already being fired—not with words, but with calculated silence.

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