POV: Fail To Prepare (William Kedjanyi)

Star Sports’ William Kedjanyi on the decision by England not to send first-choice batters for a warm-up against the Prime Minister’s XI following their first test loss in Perth…

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Ashes series, especially down under, are normally meant to give English cricket fans sleepless nights. So maybe I should be thanking Brendan McCullum’s men for contributing towards a two-day finish. With the first test in Perth having ended in record time, thanks mainly to an English second innings collapse, three 2.30am wake-ups/all-nighters (I prefer the latter) have been avoided and there’s much to ponder ahead of the day/night test in Brisbane.

The many issues with ‘Bazball’ – a method of playing cricket that rejuvenated England after a run of one win in 17 tests but which has had many issues in the last 18 months – have been written about tirelessly, and there’s no doubt more anger will be forthcoming if the visitors suffer another whitewash.

The upcoming day/night test is pivotal – another loss, especially like that, and more fans will be lost and the hosts will be one win away from taking the urn. It’s also a day/night test, meaning the rarely used pink ball will be used.

Due to tradition, England, who have already suffered the all too common fate of a limited preparation whilst Australia’s test side were enjoying highly productive Sheffield Shield campaigns, have the opportunity of a two-day tour match against the Prime Minister’s XI that would use the pink ball in a day/night setting.

Normally, these matches tend to involve players who aren’t starting the tests, given the sometimes short gap between tests and highly specific preparation plans. However, with England facing only 67.3 overs – 405 balls, 23 fewer than Alistair Cook faced in his magnificent 235 run innings at the MCG against Australia in 2011 – in the first test, it’s fair to say they’ve had woefully little time in the middle facing modern Australian conditions.

With an 11-day gap between the first ‘test’ and the second, the fixture would not only be a more comfortable fit, but a chance for English players to adjust in some capacity to the pink ball. The flight time is not particularly excessive – it’s just under four hours to go from Perth to Canberra, the venue for the tour match, and it’s around 2 hours to go onwards to Brisbane.

With that in mind, it is staggering that no first-choice players will take up the opportunity to play there. The BBC’s Stephan Shemilt, on tour with Test Match Special, reports that none of the first test XI have even asked to play there, despite there being no training sessions until Monday in their schedule. Indeed, the only senior players who will join the Lions (bowlers Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts, and batter Jacob Bethell) didn’t play in the first test.

Even in normal circumstances, the practice wouldn’t hurt. England haven’t played as many day/nighters as Australia – since McCullum took over, they’ve played just one, back in February 2023, whilst Australia have played four (including two in the last 12 months, winning three of them.

Australia have won 13 of the 14 day/night tests they’ve played. Mitchell Starc, who took 10 wickets in Perth, is the best pink-ball bowler in the world, and the movement expected will give Scott Boland massive encouragement. Ben Stokes and Joe Root failed to reach double figures in both innings, while Zak Crawley became only the fourth England opener to record a pair in an Ashes Test.

Surely another outing for them with the same ball they’ll be facing in the second test is better than net time, especially with so few opportunities so far in Australia to feel bat on ball.

Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have been uncompromising in their defence of this, with Stokes telling Test Match Special that “We’ve operated in this way, where we know that the preparation we put in is correct in the way it works for us.”

The second test in Brisbane will tell us if this is the right choice, but I can’t help but be reminded of that age-old saying: Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

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