REVEALED: England's fast-bowling plans to snatch back the Ashes, with NINE pacemen including a lightning quick, bone-broth guzzling bolter who's already the Aussies' nemesis

England are planning to take as many as nine fast bowlers to Australia this winter, with Hampshire’s 22-year-old tearaway Sonny Baker pushing hard to be among them.

Ben Stokes’s Ashes squad is set to be announced next month, and Daily Mail Sport understands that the selectors will not waver from their plans to employ significant pace to regain the urn – which has now been out of English hands for eight years.

While Australia’s fast-bowling strategy will revolve around their big three of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, plus back-up from Scott Boland, England intend to rest and rotate their battery of quicks throughout a five-match series that starts in Perth on November 21 and is spread across seven weeks.

England have picked seven fast bowlers for each of their last three Ashes tours, which have produced a disastrous aggregate scoreline of 13–0 to Australia, and two draws.

A pack of nine – Stokes included – would not only represent a departure from the norm, it would allow England to unleash a range of styles and speeds on an Australian top order that looks more vulnerable than it has for years, with not a single individual century during their recent three-Test series in the Caribbean.

It was headed by a top three of Sam Konstas, who youthful age (19) is still higher than his Test batting average (16.3), Usman Khawaja, whose powers are waning at 38, and Cameron Green, who is yet to fulfil his potential and is averaging 23.5 in his new role at No 3.

At the upper end of England's pace spectrum ready to be unleashed on that shaky top order are Mark Wood, who intends to play for Durham before the season is over and will head to Perth a week in advance of his team-mates to acclimatise, and Jofra Archer, who made a successful return to the Test team during the 2–2 draw with India after more than four injury-hit years away.

But neither Wood nor Archer is likely to play more than three of the five Ashes Tests, leaving Josh Tongue and Brydon Carse to slot into the 85mph-plus category that England deem so crucial for success on Australian pitches.

Tongue is regarded by the management as especially promising, though he still needs to work on his self-belief. He was England’s leading wicket-taker against India with 19, despite playing in only three of the five Tests, and impressed Stokes and Brendon McCullum with the way he fought back at the Oval after starting with a flurry of wides, then carrying a greater burden than expected because of Chris Woakes' shoulder injury.

Assuming Stokes recovers in time from the shoulder tear that ruled him out of the fifth and final India Test, England would have five bowlers in Australia capable of hitting the late 80mphs or more.

Next in the pace stakes is Gus Atkinson, who showed during his comeback Test at the Oval that he has added variety and skill to the energy that brought him 52 wickets in his first year at the highest level, and has been earmarked for the new ball.

Woakes, who hopes to have recovered in time from his dislocated shoulder, and Durham's Matthew Potts are also in line for selection.

England plainly feel Woakes’s race at Test level hasn’t quite been run, despite a mediocre record in Australia (16 wickets in seven Tests at an average of 51.7), while Potts has been told to focus on his new-ball skills rather than out-and-out speed.

That leaves Baker, busy turning heads in the Hundred with Manchester Originals, as the potential bolt from the blue.

Hailing from Torbay in Devon, he didn’t make his first-class debut until January, when he bowled well for England Lions against Australia A in Sydney, taking three for 60 in the hosts' only innings.

Since then, six championship matches for Hampshire – after Baker left Somerset at the end of last season – have brought him five-fors against reigning champions Surrey and Worcestershire.

But it is in the Hundred that his promise has been broadcast to a wider audience, including a hat-trick against Northern Superchargers.

‘I’ve been so impressed,’ said Jimmy Anderson, an Originals team-mate. ‘He’s got pace, skill, swings the ball both ways. He has a lot going for him.’

With that in mind, England believe Baker, who has broken 90mph in the tournament, can be more than just a speed merchant, offering yorkers and changes of pace, and potentially providing a new-ball option while the famously unyielding Kookaburra ball is still swinging.

Baker, who has been called up for next week's one-day series against South Africa, is an intriguing character.

He studied biology for a year with the Open University and concocted a special bone broth to help fend off the stress fractures of the back that have already dogged him during his embryonic career, and briefly had him considering a career as a teacher.

‘You basically put bones in boiling water, the same as a slow cooker, and it just dissolves the minerals out of the bone,’ he told the BBC.

‘You get collagen in there as well. If you chuck root veg or whatever in there, a bit of black pepper, it tastes quite nice. I think it has made a big difference.’

He also keeps meticulous notes on the batsmen he has bowled to, including the Australian stars David Warner - who failed to score off Baker’s opening five-ball set during a recent Hundred appearance for London Spirit - and Steve Smith.

Warner is no longer a Test cricketer, but Smith remains the biggest batting obstacle between England and Ashes success, batting at No 4 and looking to add to his titanic 12 Test centuries against the old enemy. Baker’s little black book may yet get more of an airing than he ever expected.