Cricket legend Allan Border has questioned Australia’s decision not to play warm-up matches before the World Test Championship final and Ashes series, claiming the move is “fraught with danger”.
For the first time in Ashes history, Australia won’t face any local county sides before or during this winter’s tour of England. The ECB crammed the five Ashes fixtures into a six-week window in June and July to ensure England’s Test players were available for The Hundred tournament, which gets underway in early August.
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The harsh scheduling leaves little room for Australia to play tour games, while the World Test Championship final against India will serve as the team’s only warm-up match before the Ashes opener at Edgbaston, which kicks off on June 17.
Instead, the Australian squad will prepare for the gruelling six-Test campaign with a high-intensity training camp in Beckenham, featuring centre-wicket practice and net sessions. It mirrors Australia’s preparation strategy for the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, where the touring squad prioritised freshness at the back end of the tour.
The Australian Test side has not played a tour match in nearly four years, partly because of Covid-19 restrictions, which national selector George Bailey described as “the norm”.
But Border is unconvinced, arguing the Australian team has missed an opportunity to dust off the cobwebs with a warm-up match ahead of the World Test Championship final, which gets underway at The Oval on June 7.
“I don’t care how hard you work in the nets, nothing replaces game time,” Border told Fox Cricket.
“I’m really surprised we’re just allowing the Ashes tour to be so condensed with no cricket between the games, but that’s the way it is.
“I get it, we’ve got IPLs and T20s, I understand. The game’s moved on. But I think there’s an opportunity there for us to go to England early and play a couple of games … just to polish things off a bit.
“It just doesn’t feel right not to play any cricket leading into an Ashes series. I just think that’s fraught with danger … there’s something gnawing at me saying it’s the wrong decision.”
Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Marcus Harris have been refining their craft in the County Championship over the past month, while four other Australian Test stars will rush over to England after their Indian Premier League stints wrap up.
If the Mumbai Indians qualify for the IPL season finale, all-rounder Cameron Green will touch down in England less than a week before the World Test Championship final in London, having spent nearly four months in the subcontinent.
The other members of Australia’s Test squad, who will travel to the United Kingdom later this week, recently completed a three-day training camp in Brisbane. Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood hasn’t played a red-ball match since early January, while the World Test Championship final will be Pat Cummins’ first competitive game since leaving India in February.
However, diving into a Test series without any first-class cricket under their belt has become standard practice for Australia’s experienced players — Cummins’ men won the 2021/22 Ashes having not played red-ball cricket for ten months, winning the series 4-0.
Meanwhile, Victorian seamer Scott Boland turned down the opportunity to play County Championship cricket this year, prioritising freshness ahead of the England tour.
“I know my body, that if I’m at a stage where I’m getting tired, I want to keep my career going for as long as I can,” Boland told cricket.com.au last week.
“I don’t want to burn out.”
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Border, who led Australia during two Ashes tours in 1989 and 1993, lamented how touring games have fallen by the wayside as T20 leagues clog the cricket calendar.
In the 1989 Ashes, Australia played ten warm-up matches and three ODIs before the first Test against England at Headingley, with a further 13 tour games scheduled throughout the four-month tour.
The itinerary was similar when Australia returned to the United Kingdom four years later, playing 20 tour games and three ODIs alongside the six Tests against England.
“We played two three-day games between the Test matches, and we played the day after the Test match,” Border explained.
“It was a pretty packed itinerary — but no one died, no one got injured. Everyone enjoyed themselves.
“It was fantastic. You could rest guys, you could give guys opportunities to get themselves back into form … it really worked well.
“We were away for four months. They just don’t do that these days.”
Border also pointed out that tour games were vital for fringe players looking to push their case for selection — Michael Neser was not named in the Australian Test squad because the selection panel didn’t want the Queensland all-rounder serving as a “superfluous” net bowler for two months.
“Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn, who were the extra batsmen on those tours, they both made a thousand runs on tour … so they were cherry ripe ready to go if they got called in,” Border continued.
“If that happens on this tour, those blokes will have had no cricket coming in. You’ve got them batting in the nets or bowling in the nets, and it is not the same.”
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Speaking to reporters in Brisbane last week, Australian spinner Nathan Lyon defended the team’s decision not to schedule any tour games in England, pointing out that most of the Test squad had played red-ball cricket in England before.
“When are we going to fit it in?” Lyon asked.
“You look at the schedule, if a few guys make the IPL final, they won’t be arriving in England until five days before the World Test Championship final.
“So it’s quite hard to schedule in a tour game these days. I’m not really sure when we’re meant to do it. There’s no point in us only playing with seven players against a county side.
“The players now are extremely professional, everyone is doing the work. There’s of lot of net sessions happening back here in Australia.
“Yes, we get that it’s not game practice or anything like that, but it’s not like we’re sitting at home twiddling our thumbs. We’re doing the work and I know that we’ll be ready.”
Former Australian all-rounder Brendon Julian echoed Lyon’s remarks, declaring he was “totally comfortable” with Cummins’ men preparing for the Ashes by focusing on individual skills in a training camp.
“I don’t actually have an issue with it,” Julian told Fox Cricket.
“If you have a look at the last couple of years, the modern game now really sets itself up for more specific training and preparation.
“We’ve been through series overseas where we’ve had no lead-up, and we’ve done it before in England as well.”
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