Washout leaves England undercooked for Ashes

⮞The pandemic, a congested calendar and unseasonably wet weather has denied the visitors any meaningful match practice

Aweek before the first Test, and the Ashes build-up still lacks any actual cricket to discuss. That is partly a result of Covid19, partly the relentless fixture list depriving players of a block of firstclass cricket to prepare for Brisbane, and partly down to plain bad luck.

Heavy rain in south Queensland, has deprived England and Australia of any meaningful cricket during their inter-squad warm-up games.

With intense schedules, players have become accustomed to lowkey preparation, but there has never been anything quite like this before an Ashes tour. With rain curtailing the opening day of England’s final warm-up game, they have still had only 29 overs of cricket in Australia.

Even if some of their final warmup game can be salvaged, this is probably the worst-prepared English team starting an Ashes tour.

By the time of the first Test in Brisbane next Wednesday, it will have been 76 days since any of England’s Test team played a first-class match.

For many, it will have been much longer: Jos Buttler has not played a first-class match since Aug 28. When he takes to the field at the Gabba, it will have been 157 days since Ben Stokes played a first-class match.

After being thrashed in consecutive Ashes series Down Under – the tourists could hardly complain that the combined 9-0 scoreline from the 10 Tests in 2013-14 and 2017-18 was unfair – England resolved to ensure they were better prepared for this series. An advance party of those not involved in the T20 World

Cup was sent to Australia, with the Lions accompanying the main squad to provide the competitive cricket that the motley array of warm-up matches Cricket Australia arranged four years ago failed to do.

The strategy aimed to learn from

Australia’s retention of the Ashes in 2019, but has been undermined by the weather. Yet, perhaps England can draw solace from New Zealand’s exploits in the first Test in India.

New Zealand did not even have any inter-squad warm-up matches, with the schedule so saturated that Test specialists were required to train during the morning of matches before the T20 side. But, in Kanpur, New Zealand were able to overcome this handicap and salvage a draw.

It suggested that preparation for modern players should not be measured in competitive cricket alone, and that they can overcome inadequate build-up to a tour through mental strength and drawing on previous experiences in a country.

Certainly, this is Buttler’s view. “Lots of us go between formats quite often,” he said. “In the Covid era, things have changed quite a lot as well, with quarantine rules making certain things a little trickier. It’s something that you just have to deal with as a modern player. No team should be using it as an excuse, you can still turn up on that first day and play a really good Test match.”

None of this obscures the fact that England are not in the optimal position to produce their best from day one. Consider how Buttler’s Test record is appreciably better when he has reacquainted himself with the red-ball game – his modest average of 24.2 in the first match of a series soars to 38.4 thereafter. At least, by the time of Brisbane, he will have had almost a month to think about the demands of red-ball batting.

And England can hardly claim a monopoly on sub-standard preparation. As well as losing their captain, Australia have five members of their team who have not played first-class cricket since April; the side’s last Test was almost 11 months ago, too.

If the upshot is a series in which Test cricket falls short of the highest quality, the players should be afforded some sympathy.