6 days to go!
What was the point of the warm-up?
Ben Stokes says it as it is. It makes him popular, but it means he can also be a bit frustrating in his attitude. Lord Botham was the same – and still is. After Botham walked back through a silent Lords pavillion in 1981, he never made friends with the Lords members again, and made his feelings known.
So it is funny to see these two England all-rounders on opposite sides of the conversation about preparation. But actually, these two differ completely when it comes to preparation. Stokes does not rely on game time for his preparation – he is clearly incredibly fit and pushes himself to the max. Every England fan wishes he pushed himself a bit less – but then he would not be the player he is. If you read Stokes’ 2019 diary, you see that mental preparation – thinking about the game and visualising it – is a big part of Stokes’ success.
Botham hated training and just wanted to be out playing. He has no time for the suggestion that these players play too much – he points at county cricket in the 80s. The great unknown, of course, is how much longer Botham might have played for if he had been fitter. But the modern approach to fitness has not been that successful for Mark Wood and Jofra Archer – and even Stokes has had his share of injury.
So Botham would have played more warm-up matches, Stokes says it is impossible. It certainly seems crazy to me that the England team arrived in Aus from different parts of the world on different flights at different times. The unified team departure from Heathow is long gone. I certainly feel it would have been better for the team to travel together from London as a team – that New Zealand series was a waste of time in my view. But Stokes does not make those decisions about schedules.
Of course, Engand played loads of games in 1986/7 – but they lost all the warm ups. Maybe it was still useful in terms of forming the team – it probably led to the selection of Bill Athey over Wilf Slack. England also have won warm-up matches on all of the disasterous Ashes tours of the past – and they were probably useful, even if they did not lead to series wins.
One thing that has changed, I suspect, is the quality of the opposition in these warm-ups. Like England counties, the opportunity to get one over the touring team was a major motivator in the past. Now, that is no longer the case. England have faced teams with hardly any first class experience in recent Ashes tours.
On balance, I agree with Stokes. It is pointless for England to turn up and play loads of games against poor quality opposition. Equally, they could not find time for fixutres. The game verses England Lions is of limited value, but at least players like Ollie Pope, Jordan Cox and Matthew Potts would be throwing themselves at it – it was a chance to get noticed by the selectors – and it as certainly sorted out who will bat at 3 for England for now.
Hazelwood’s hamstring
Josh Hazelwood is out of the first test match, along with Pat Cummins. In 2023, England had a golden opportunity when Nathon Lyon was injured at Lords – they did not take it – perhaps they were complacent with a major gap in the opposition bowling attack.
They must not be complacement – Scott Boland seems to cause a lot of problems, though I am not quite sure why. The Aussies will pull out another bowler from somewhere – they always do. But if England are to win the Ashes, they absolutely must take this chance. They have to win at Perth because Cummins and Hazelwood will come back fit and rested. It is England’s best chance of getting off to a winning start down under – which they have not done since 1986.
Cricketed 