England batsmen decide not to play in pink-ball game in Canberra against Prime Minister’s XI before Gabba Test
England’s first choice top six have turned their noses up at the option of pink-ball match practice for the Gabba Ashes Test, not sending a single batsman who played in Perth to Canberra for the Prime Minister’s XI game.
Squad players Jacob Bethel – the only spare batsman in the squad – Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue have chosen to take part in the game.
Zak Crawley made a pair of ducks in Perth.Credit: Getty Images
But Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes and Jamie Smith will all fly from Perth to Brisbane on Wednesday and are not scheduled to train again until Monday next week.
Stokes had hinted strongly that this would be his team’s course of action after they were beaten inside two days in Perth.
However the decision not to seek more match batting for Crawley, Root and Brook in particular will likely bring a fierce response from past England players who had already criticised the tourists for playing only one warm-up game.
“It’s amateurish if they don’t go and play now,” former captain Michael Vaughan had said. “What harm is playing two days of cricket with a pink ball under lights?
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“They’ve played two days of cricket. They’ve been out in the field for, what, 70 [67.3] overs? Look, they’re professional cricketers. I can’t be so old-school to suggest that by playing cricket, you 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 make sure that you’re giving yourself the best chance.
