England’s Ashes challengers will start arriving in Perth on Monday with “no excuses” for failure in their mission to regain the urn from an Australian side that will be missing captain Pat Cummins for at least the first Test.
Australia’s selectors will finalise their chosen group over the next two days, before the squad is announced in mid-week. It is expected to include 15 players, with Cummins also to travel to Perth as he builds up his bowling loads after a back injury.
Jofra Archer.Credit: AP
Portents for English success have not exactly flowed during a white-ball prelude in New Zealand, where the ODI team was swept 3-0 and none of Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett or Jamie Smith could trouble the Black Caps for long.
Head coach Brendon McCullum has insisted that those games, which did showcase some swift spells from Jofra Archer in particular, will be helpful in the long run to the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney in January.
“No I don’t envisage that,” McCullum retorted when asked if a trio of poor batting displays would affect the confidence of the Test team. “It’s a different form of the game and it’s a completely different kind of challenge that we’re going to be confronted with as well.”
Read more about the looming Ashes battle here.
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