Legendary former all-rounder Lord Botham said this month England’s lack of warm-ups against Australian state sides “borders on arrogance”. The batting struggles in the ongoing ODI series in New Zealand has not dampened such talk.
It is no secret England have tried to use the white-ball tour to aid their preparation, easing their Test players back into competitive cricket, increasing the workloads of their fast bowlers and trying to get batters time in the middle.
Fast bowling trio Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood and Josh Tongue have also been with the squads working on their own programmes with the backroom staff.
For some it has worked. Limited-overs captain Harry Brook scored a century in the first ODI and looks to be in decent form, while fast bowler Jofra Archer quickly found his groove to take 3-23 in the second match – his first outing of the winter.
However, Joe Root, Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith, all playing for the first time since the start of September, have scored 43 runs between them in four matches – leading to the issue rearing its head.
“I understand where the question comes from, the history of the game,” said Barney, asked whether the discussion around the pre-Ashes schedule is frustrating.
“The interesting question is – have you looked at the Future Tours Programme? Have you looked at franchise cricket and the fact that a multi-format player left the country on 13 October and if they play in every England commitment and play in the Indian Premier League and The Hundred they will have less than two weeks off between now and the end of September?
“There is a volume of cricket that takes place that means there is a constant balancing of red-ball, white-ball, franchise and domestic cricket commitments.
“We are confident in the set-up, the approach, the time the team have got together, the ability we have had to provide a set of different preparations that are optimal for different players.”
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