Poms’ Spanish break doesn’t bother Lehmann
Gambhir working with Langer
CANTERBURY, United Kingdom, June 29, (Agencies): Australia coach Darren Lehmann made it clear he could not care less what England get up to during their four-day trip to Spain after his side launched their Ashes tour with a convincing win.
Sunday saw Ashes-holders Australia defeat Kent by 255 runs on the final day of four in Canterbury.
Australia now have one more four-day game, against Essex in Chelmsford starting on Wednesday, before they begin the defence of the Ashes with the first Test against England in Cardiff from July 8.
England have travelled to Spain in a bid for their likely Ashes squad to get to know new Australian coach Trevor Bayliss.
Asked what England might gain from such an exercise, Lehmann told reporters at the St Lawrence Ground: “I don’t know, don’t want to know. Don’t care.
“I only worry about us to be perfectly honest. We’ve got to worry about how we are going to produce really good cricket ing in his lone innings against Kent
“I thought this sledging stuff was supposed to stop!,” said a smiling Lehmann.
“It’s pretty much always swung in the history of the game here in England,” added Lehmann, who played for English county giants Yorkshire.
“You’ve got to be a good player to make runs. I think Steven Smith is a good player.”
Lehmann announced his team for the Essex match — David Warner, Chris Rogers, Michael Clarke, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Mitchell Marsh, reserve wicket-keeper Peter Nevill, Harris, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and offspinner Nathan Lyon — following the conclusion of the Kent match.
Several of those players are set to feature in the first Test but there are still a couple of places to be decided, with Shaun Marsh and Rogers battling to open alongside David Warner, while Mitchell Marsh and Shane Watson contest the position of seam-bowling all-rounder.
Meanwhile, seam bowler Mark Wood hopes to transform from a “net hero” to an Ashes match-winner when he is reacquainted with Australia all-rounder Shane Watson in the five-match series starting next week.
Durham seamer Wood was once instructed as a young net bowler to bounce Watson by his Australia team mate Mike Hussey.
Having been named in England’s Ashes training squad, right-armer Wood looks set to take on Watson once again when the Ashes begin in Cardiff on July 8.
“Mike Hussey asked me to bounce Watson in the nets, to which I wasn’t going to say no,” Wood told the BBC.
“I let him have one, he gloved it and didn’t give me the best of looks. Next ball, Hussey said ‘give it him again’, so I bumped him again and this time he absolutely smoked it. “He picked up the ball, threw it back down the wicket at me and called me a ‘net hero’.”
Wood made his test debut against New Zealand at Lord’s in May and went on to take nine wickets in the two-match series.
The 25-year-old has struggled with injury problems throughout his career and has been restricted to 26 first-class matches since making his debut in 2011.
New South Wales and South Australia will play a Sheffield Shield match in honour of Phillip Hughes near to the former test batsman’s home next year.
Hughes died two days after being struck by a ball during a match between the two states at Sydney Cricket Ground last year, triggering a wave of mourning across Australia.
“There are really no words that can describe the loss we all felt after the tragic passing of Phillip,” South Australian Cricket Association chief Keith Bradshaw said in a news release.
“This match is but one way to remember our friend and much-loved team mate so close to his home town.”
The Phillip Hughes tribute match between the two teams he represented in Sheffield Shield cricket will take place at the Coffs International Stadium from Feb. 25-28 next year.