Despite being crushed by Australia in the opening Ashes Test at Perth, England’s top cricketers chose to miss a pink-ball tour match, drawing criticism for being “amateurish”.
This weekend, just three members of their team will go to Canberra to play a two-day, day-night match against a Prime Minister’s XI with the second-tier England Lions.
Despite England’s first Test batting implosions, with players like Joe Root, Zac Crawley, and Harry Brook all struggling, only Jacob Bethell, Matthew Potts, and Josh Tongue—none of whom played in Perth—will feature in the day-night match. Instead, the remainder of the team will go to Brisbane in preparation for the second pink-ball Test on December 4.
The decision “staggered” former Ashes captain Michael Vaughan.
“I’m sorry, but it’s amateurish,” he wrote in his column for English broadsheet The Telegraph.
“You have 11 days between Tests, are 1-0 down in the Ashes, and have the opportunity to get accustomed to a pink ball they do not play with much, and with which Mitchell Starc is an absolute wizard. I can’t get my head around why they all wouldn’t want to just play. What is the downside?”
Australia has won 13 of 14 pink-ball Test matches under the lights, and England may go down 2-0 in the five-match series, which could be irreversible.
Jonathan Agnew, a noted commentator and former England pacer, was also astounded by the team’s reluctance to engage in some pink-ball practice.
“It is a bizarre situation,” he said on the BBC.
“Just because Australia are accustomed to these matches and England are not, it does not mean England cannot win. But there is a huge question about whether England would be better prepared playing a game under lights than spending time in the nets in Brisbane. England — the management, players and administrators — will be held to account at the end of the Ashes if their plans do not work,” he added.
Following the humiliation in Perth, England coach Brendon McCullum declared that they would not be altering their strategy.
“We’ve got to work out whether that extra cricket is the key, or making sure that camaraderie is tight and morale doesn’t drop,” McCullum said in reference to the Canberra game.
“We’ve just got to work out what the pros and cons of all that are.”
