{"id":503206,"date":"2026-03-30T09:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T09:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503206\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T09:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T09:46:14","slug":"darren-lehmann-england-players-do-not-play-enough-county-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503206\/","title":{"rendered":"Darren Lehmann: England players do not play enough county cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was considerable criticism of England’s apparent lack of preparation for the series in Australia, both before and during the tour, with particular focus and controversy around the four-day break in Noosa, Queensland<\/a> after the first two Tests.<\/p>\n

England said the break had been scheduled for more than a year but there were reports of players drinking excessively.<\/p>\n

“If they had played those first two Shield games before the first two tests, then played the two Tests on the bounce, they actually needed a week off,” added Lehmann, who played five Tests against England during his playing career.<\/p>\n

“They’re all adults so they should know where they stand and look after themselves. And they are a lot more professional than we were in our day so I don’t subscribe that they carried on too much. <\/p>\n

“They’re not big drinkers and there’s nothing wrong with having a night out. I actually saw a couple of them for a coffee in Noosa and they were fine.<\/p>\n

“It’s more about the preparation for the Ashes where they didn’t play any county cricket in the back end of the summer and then they played a one-day series before the Ashes where they could have played a extra first-class game and that’s probably where it’s gone wrong.<\/p>\n

“They just need to be a bit more diligent in their preparation and what they’re trying to do and how they want to play.”<\/p>\n

The Test summer on these shores starts with the visit of New Zealand for a three-match series on 4 June with three more Tests to come in a series with Pakistan in August and September.<\/p>\n

Lehmann said he expects England to win both series, adding: “They’ll play exciting cricket.<\/p>\n

“They’ll score quickly. The wickets will be flat. They’ll oscillate between the two styles. <\/p>\n

“They played too aggressive in Australia. The problem is when the wicket does anything.<\/p>\n

“They’ll rethink how they want to play in different stages, making sure they’re prepared as best they can.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was considerable criticism of England’s apparent lack of preparation for the series in Australia, both before and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-503206","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}