Ben Stokes faces an uphill task. In fact, he has been tasked with climbing the cricketing Everest — winning the Ashes on Australian soil.

Only three England captains have secured the urn in Australia in the last 50 years, with Andrew Strauss the last in 2010-11.

Stokes is desperate to be on that elite list.

“I’ve come here absolutely desperate to get home on that plane in January as one of the lucky few captains from England who have come here and been successful,” Stokes told mediapersons on Thursday.

“We know it’s a huge task coming to Australia and everything that comes with that away from the field, on the field. It is a huge two-and-a-half months for us,” the England skipper said.

The job will not be easy though. Strauss’s 3-1 win and Mike Gatting’s 2-1 triumph in 1986-87 were against modest Australian teams struggling to rebuild after the retirements of champion players. Mike Brearley’s 5-1 cakewalk in 1978-79 came against an Australian side gutted by a player exodus to World Series Cricket.

But this Australia is a different beast. It will take something special for England to wrest back the urn.

With inputs from Reuters