England cricket team have opted to to not participate in the pink ball warm-up game ahead of the 2nd Ashes Test. Ben Stokes and co. were handed a 8-wicket thrashing in the AUS vs ENG 1st Test in Perth, with Mitchell Starc and Travis Head decimating the visitors in what was a two-day contest. Ahead of the next Test, which will be a day-night affair, England Lions are scheduled to play a pink-ball warm-up game against Australia Prime Minister’s XI which begins on Saturday.
No player from England’s XI to take part in pink-ball warm-up
As per reports, England have released just three players from their squad to take part in the warm-up fixture in Canberra. The three stars are Jacob Bethell, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue – all of them who warmed the bench in the 1st Ashes Test in Perth. The rest of England’s playing XI will head directly to Brisbane ahead of the AUS vs ENG 2nd Test.
England’s move to ditch the warm-up game will not go down well with several former cricketers who had suggested that Ben Stokes and co. get some warm-up before the day-night fixture. Michael Vaughan had stated that it would be amateurish for England to skip the two-day game and had asked what was the harm in playing the game under the lights in order to get acclimatized to the conditions.
“It’s not being old-school to suggest that a pink ball is different to a red ball. Playing under the lights is different. Australia have won pretty much every pink-ball game in Australia: they’ve lost once. I’m not too old-school to suggest that they should play in that game… I’d like to know why they wouldn’t,” Vaughan said.
England last played a day-night Test way back in 2023 against England where they emerged victorious by 267 runs against New Zealand. The visitors had their fair share of struggles in the Ashes 1st Test, with majority of their batters struggling against the Australian bowlers. While Zak Crawley registered consecutive ducks in the game, veteran Joe Root’s poor run in Australia ensued.
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