This is the latest episode in a string of local media coverage of the England team on their tour of Australia.<\/p>\n
Players were filmed on their arrival at Perth airport, with particular attention on Stokes and batter Joe Root.<\/p>\n
The visitors have had drones follow them when playing golf and some players were pictured visiting an aquarium in Perth.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of a heavy defeat in the first Test, their performance and attitude came under heavy scrutiny. Former Australia pace bowler Mitchell Johnson said the England team are “arrogant”.<\/p>\n
England are 1-0 down in the series and are planning a holiday in Noosa – north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast – following the second Test, regardless of the result.<\/p>\n
Pope said England are “very aware” of the media attention but that they should be able to spend time away from cricket.<\/p>\n
“For us as cricketers and as people it’s important to try and be able to switch off and be yourself,” said the Surrey batter.<\/p>\n
Pope, 27, is on his second Ashes tour and highlighted the difference to his previous trip to Australia four years ago, when the England squad were subject to tough Covid restrictions.<\/p>\n
“Locking your doors and not coming out of your room is the unhealthy thing to do, as we saw in Covid times,” said Pope.<\/p>\n
“Whatever you’re doing in your off time, whether it’s just taking your mind away from cricket for a day or two, that’s really important.<\/p>\n
“If they want to catch us doing that, then so be it. It is important to have that balance on a long tour like this.”<\/p>\n
Australia fast bowler Scott Boland agreed with Pope on the need for players to have time away from cricket.<\/p>\n
As the team hosting the series, Australia’s players have the benefit of returning to their homes between Tests.<\/p>\n
“You want to enjoy your free time,” said Boland. “We can go home, see our families and stuff like that.<\/p>\n
“You do like your privacy – I’m the same. I’m a pretty private person. I like being able to go home when I can and not have camera in my face all the time.”<\/p>\n
England have confirmed their team for the second Test, with all-rounder Will Jacks taking the place of the injured Wood.<\/p>\n
Australia opener Usman Khawaja has been ruled out with a back injury, meaning Travis Head, who scored a match-winning century in the opening Test, will continue at the top of the order and Josh Inglis or Beau Webster will come into the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the latest episode in a string of local media coverage of the England team on their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-322353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}