After their two-day thrashing in the first Ashes Test in Perth, head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes were left to decide whether to give their players a warm-up with the pink ball ahead of the day-night second Test in Brisbane from December 4.
The two-day game against a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra across November 29 and 30 had seemingly been earmarked as a game for Lions players, England’s second string, to get a run out, but two batting collapses raised the possibility of a rethink.
The ECB then announced on Monday that Jacob Bethell, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue had been released to play in the floodlit tour match, with none of the England players from the first Test XI included the England Lions squad.
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Sky Sports’ Stuart Broad was left stunned as Mitchell Starc took Joe Root’s wicket during England’s day-two batting collapse at Optus Stadium (Pictures @7Cricket)
Sky Sports’ Michael Atherton felt that the batters should have been asked if they feel they need a hit, referencing Zak Crawley, who bagged the first pair by an England opener since Atherton himself in 1999.
McCullum said: “We’ll let the dust settle on this, then we’ll start having those conversations, working out what’s what.
“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.
“We’ve just got to work out what the pros and cons are. We’re not married to any position at the moment, but we’ll work it out in a couple of days.”
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England opener Zak Crawley was twice out for nought in the Perth Test and has registered 44 single-figure
dismissals in 109 innings
‘Amateurish’ for England not to take tour game seriously?
Stokes had echoed similar thoughts to McCullum at his post-match press conference on Saturday, while former England captain Michael Vaughan told the BBC that it would be “amateurish” if the tourists did not take the pink-ball tune-up seriously.
Vaughan said: “What harm is it playing two days of cricket with the pink ball under lights? I can’t be so old school to suggest that by playing cricket they might get a little bit better?
“My method would be, you’ve got a pink-ball two-day game, you go and grab it, go and take it, play those two days and give yourself the best chance.”
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Ben Stokes’ England lost the first Test in Perth by eight wickets
Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, former England seamer Stuart Broad said he did not expect the tourists to alter their plans.
“I don’t think any England player will go there,” said Broad.
“I think [McCullum] will want to keep them tight, learning off each other, and not have people fragmenting to different parts of Australia to work on things.”
Australia have won 13 of their 14 day-night Tests, including all three against England, with Mitchell Starc taking a leading 81 wickets with the pink ball.
Wood: England should fight fire with fire
Fast bowler Mark Wood, meanwhile, has called for England to “fight fire with fire” and avoid being hit with a knockout blow in the Ashes, revealing the mood was “flat” after the Perth hammering.
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Mark Wood has called for England to ‘fight fire with fire’ and avoid being hit with a knockout blow in the Ashes
The 35-year-old told Broad’s For the Love of Cricket podcast: “We’ve been hit pretty hard in round one but we’ve got other rounds to try and throw some back. Ultimately, we have to stick together because it’s about the end goal, not this one game.
“There has to be a reflection of what went on, to understand the disappointment, but also know we did some good things. Can we take them into the other four games? This is not one, it’s one of five.
“Australia will have confidence from that win, so it’s up to us to fight fire with fire, come back in and try to knock them over again.
“I definitely feel we’ve got 20 wickets. The team has been designed to take 20 wickets in these conditions.
“As a group, we can take a lot of confidence from that game and being a day/night Test next, we know around night time it can zip around. If it can zip around at pace that can make it doubly difficult.”
Ashes series in Australia 2025-26
All times UK and Ireland
First Test (Perth – November 21-25): Australia beat England by eight wicketsSecond Test (day/night): Thursday December 4 – Monday December 8 (4am) – The Gabba, BrisbaneThird Test: Wednesday December 17 – Sunday December 21 (11.30pm) – Adelaide OvalFourth Test: Thursday December 25 – Monday December 29 (11.30pm) – Melbourne Cricket GroundFifth Test: Sunday January 4 – Thursday January 8 (11.30pm) – Sydney Cricket Ground