England have released three members of their Ashes squad for a two-day pink-ball fixture ahead of the Brisbane Day/Night Test, none of whom featured in their playing XI for the Perth test.
England release three players for pink-ball warm-up match
On Monday (November 24), the ECB announced that three members of the senior England squad for the Ashes had been released to play a two-day pink-ball game for England Lions against the Australian Prime Minister's XI: Josh Tongue, Jacob Bethell, and Matthew Potts.
None of the three players featured in the first Test at Perth, which England lost by eight wickets. With the second Test supposed to be a day-night affair in Brisbane, there were calls for senior England players to get some pink-ball game time under their belt by making themselves available for the two-day fixture against the PM's XI.
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Michael Vaughan suggested it would be "stupid" to not use the game as relevant match-practice. “If this England side don’t think that it is good preparation to go and play a pink ball game, they are absolutely stupid,” Vaughan had said on Fox Cricket, before writing about it in a column for The Telegraph.
"I’m sorry, but it’s amateurish. 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. They are an international cricket team. They are cricketers. I can’t get my head around why they all wouldn’t want to just play. What is the downside? I worry that they are fearful to ask the captain and coach for some game-time, because that’s not their method. If they wouldn’t let them, I’d be on Skyscanner booking my own flights to Canberra."
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Vaughan's fears have come true as England have not released any of the first-team members for the warm-up game, which begins on November 29 in Canberra. Two of the three players who have been released - Bethell and Potts - were among those who featured in the Lions' fixture during the dying stages of the Perth Test.
Bethell made 44 runs in the only innings he batted, and bowled 10 wicketless overs, while Potts picked up three wickets for 49 runs in the first innings before scoring 34 in the second.
England's warm-up snub is consistent with the philosophy they have followed previously on tours of Australia, having opted to play a sole intra-squad warm-up fixture before the start of the Ashes as well, instead of a competitive game against an Australian state side.
The second Test in Brisbane starts on December 4, four days after the warm-up game against the PM's XI is supposed to finish.
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