Tight schedule for Ashes tour
AUSTRALIA’S bid to defend their World Cup title in England next year will significantly affect preparations for the Ashes, with only two weeks separating the two biggest events on the cricket calendar.
Timing restrictions mean Australia are likely to get just one tour match of red ball practice under their belts before the first Ashes Test launches in Birmingham on August 1.
Australia hasn’t won an Ashes on UK soil since 2001, and in those four failed attempts that has been with at least two tour matches to adjust to the local conditions before the first Test is played.
England successfully altered the cycle of the Ashes back in 2014- 15 to take place 12 months earlier to avoid the back to back assignments of a five- Test epic against Australia and a World Cup.
However, Justin Langer will next year be forced to navigate an unprecedented overload of high- pressure cricket.
Cricket Australia’s likely plan will be to select all nonODI- playing members of their Ashes squad for an Australia A tour of the UK which will run concurrently with the Ashes.
This will allow at least half the squad to acclimatise against the hooping red Dukes ball.
However, for the numerous Australian stars who play across both formats, including the likes of Mitchell Starc and potentially Steve Smith and David Warner, they will be forced to rely on the highstakes nature of a World Cup being enough simulation for an Ashes.
Australia will be throwing all resources at defending their World Cup title and no contingency plans are likely to be made for extra tour matches in the event they were to be knocked out in the quarter or semi- finals.
Although if an early exit was to eventuate, it’s possible Australian ODI players could be parachuted into the Australia A squad at the last minute.
There are large gaps between the first and second Tests and the third and fourth Tests, but the ECB is yet to announce whether Australia will have any mid- series tour matches.
Australia have been given a mini- boost in the fact no Tests have been scheduled at the Trent Bridge ground where Stuart Broad decimated them with eight- wickets when they were all out for 60 before lunch back in 2015.