PERTH, Australia (AP) 鈥� Skipper Ben Stokes has defended England’s lack of warm-up matches ahead of the first Ashes cricket test against Australia in Perth beginning Nov. 21.
England is aiming to break a 14-year winless run in Australia. Stokes and fellow veteran have never won a test match in Australia, and there’s no survivors in this squad from England’s 2010-11 series win.
Australia has won 5-0, 4-0, and 4-0 the last three times England has traveled Down Under for the .
England’s only preparation in Australia for this series is a three-day match against the England Lions, essentially an England A team, starting on Thursday at Lilac Hill.
That decision has drawn criticism from Ashes greats on both sides such as Ian Healy, Ian Botham and Geoffrey Boycott.
But believes England鈥檚 preparation will be more than sufficient.
鈥淭here鈥檚 obviously state (domestic first-class) cricket going on at the moment,鈥� Stokes said Wednesday. 鈥淭ime has got to be taken into consideration as well. Some of our squad members were playing the (white-ball) series in New Zealand.”
in a series of one-day internationals.
Most of Australia’s Ashes test players are tuning up in those first-class matches this week, but it come at a cost for the host nation. Fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott had to leave New South Wales’ game against Victoria on Wednesday for medical scans. Hazlewood was cleared and will join the test squad in Perth. Abbott was ruled out with a left hamstring strain.
Stokes also said cricket’s 鈥渏am-packed鈥� schedule makes it more difficult to prepare for a five-match test series than 鈥�10, 15, 20, 30 years ago.鈥�
鈥淲e put a lot of time and effort into how we prepare for every series, and that hasn鈥檛 changed with this one,” Stokes added. “Come the 21st of this month, we know that we would have done everything possible that we could have done.鈥�
, who is the No. 1-ranked batter in test cricket and is the second-highest scorer in the format all-time, has not scored a century in 14 tests in Australia.
鈥淗e鈥檚 the greatest English batter that the nation鈥檚 seen,鈥� Stokes said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been in phenomenal form over the last two, three years. He鈥檚 not come out here to score a 100 in Australia, he鈥檚 come out here to contribute to the team.鈥�
Stokes said his team should not be overwhelmed playing in Australia.
鈥淐oming to Australia for the Ashes is a lot different than anything else when you鈥檙e playing,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot more that goes on away from the cricket itself.”
Australia update
Australia skipper Pat Cummins, a paceman who has already been while he recovers from a back injury, sounded optimistic about long-time pace partner Hazlewood’s fitness when he fronted the media in Sydney.
鈥淭hey both got scans,” he said of Hazlewood and Abbott, according to the Nine Network. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 100% got across all the details but I think Joshy was pretty chipper.
鈥淥bviously we鈥檙e a week away from the test series and you always kind of err on the side of caution and they wanted to find out what was happening before pushing it.鈥�
Cricket Australia later confirmed 34-year-old Hazlewood had reported tightness in his right hamstring but was cleared of injury following the precautionary scans, and will practice as planned leading into the first test.
The Nov. 21-25 Perth match will be followed by a day-night test at the Gabba in Brisbane starting Dec. 4, then the series moves to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
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