AUSTRALIA will play six Tests in a little over seven weeks – on two occasions with as few as three days in between – in what promises to be a hectic tour

Even before a coin is flipped or a ball is bowled, Australia’s upcoming Test tour to England looms as a campaign like no other for the national men’s team.

Straight off the bat, instead of the 12 warm-up games (occupying six weeks) that preceded the opening Test of the 1948 ‘Invincibles’ schedule, or the elaborate all-Australia intra-squad practice match that kicked off the previous visit in 2019, the team’s preparation will comprise of fitness programs and net sessions.

Furthermore, the first competitive outing will not involve a local opponent but will instead be Australia’s maiden appearance in the ICC’s biennial World Test Championship Final, where they will meet India on neutral turf at The Oval in south London from June 7-11.

From there, Pat Cummins’ men will launch directly into a five-Test Ashes series that – even allowing for England’s present penchant to play the long-form game in fast-forward – seems summarily squeezed into a frenetic window extending just six and a half weeks.

For the first time in more than 140 years of Tests between the two nations in the UK, the Ashes summer will not extend into August and there is no scope for a solitary tour match between Tests that are – on two occasions – scheduled just three days apart.

As a consequence, Australia’s national selection panel have taken the unprecedented (in away Ashes series) step of nominating a squad for the first half of the eight-week tour with that group to be revisited and possibly revised following the second Test at Lord’s.

“It feels like this is becoming the norm for Test tours, around tour games,” selection chair George Bailey said yesterday in announcing the 17-man squad for the WTC Final and first two Ashes contests.

“It feels like there’s more tours that you don’t have one (a tour match) than when you do, so our team’s reasonably well prepared in terms of knowing what you need outside of those (and) the opportunities that may have happened on past tours.

“We do it across every Australian summer – we name a squad for the first couple of Tests, and then revise just depending on how guys are going
“I think we do carry bigger squads for challenging conditions or if you know you’re going to be touring somewhere that’s out of the season at home.

“It’s good to have as much back-up as you can so you know exactly what you need to bring in, and when you need to bring it in.

“On that front, just makes sense that we get a bit of a lay of the land and know exactly how individuals are tracking from a physical point of view
“We’ll know what the wickets are doing, and what’s happening as far as results go.

“It’s so we’ve got more information to review and to be specific, and we don’t end up – come the fourth or fifth Test – with players that might not be used.”

It’s the unwillingness to have significant numbers of surplus players attached to the touring party that helps explain the selectors’ decision to cap the group at 17, as well as the rationale for several of the more noteworthy exclusions.

For example, Marsh Sheffield Shield Player of the Season Michael Neser would have been unlikely to figure as a first choice in the initial Tests given the availability of four rival quicks ahead of him – Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland.

And despite his impressive batting credentials, having scored the second century of his first-class career in last summer’s Shield competition, Neser could not realistically be considered an allrounder capable of slotting into Australia’s top six as can Cameron Green or Mitchell Marsh.

So rather than have him run drinks and be involved in the few full-scale training sessions the cramped schedule will allow, Neser will continue playing competitive cricket with county outfit Glamorgan to ensure he’s match-ready should form or fitness dictate his recruitment to the squad.

The same applies to the two batters considered closest to snaring a place in the touring party, with Peter Handscomb (Leicestershire) and Cameron Bancroft (Somerset) gaining ever-more experience in England conditions should they be called upon during the summer.

“It’s great to have so many players playing county cricket,” said Bailey, noting Australia limited-overs representative Sean Abbott is another on the fringe of Test selection currently playing in the UK with Surrey.

“We keep an eye on all the guys that are over there playing.

“Specifically, around the bowling front we’ve got our first-choice four quicks and if we do need to call on another quick, we can be really specific on who we need and why, and not necessarily have someone in the squad who ends up being superfluous.”

Despite the packed itinerary and the demands it will place particularly on fast bowlers from both teams, Australia enter the UK campaign with four front-line quicks compared to the five they deployed on their previous visit in 2019 – Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood, James Pattinson and Peter Siddle.

But a crucial difference between the most recent Ashes quest in the UK four years ago and the one that formally begins next month is the presence of allrounders Green and Marsh who – now that the latter has returned to bowling – combine the benefits of a genuine seamer with a top-six batter.

An unknown element will be Hazlewood’s capacity to slot back into Test cricket given he has played just two matches in the past year and was ruled out of the recent series in India with the recurrence of an Achilles tendon injury.

While his fellow fast bowlers have been taking a break from competitive cricket since the India tour, Hazlewood is currently involved in the Indian Premier League although he has yet to make an appearance for his Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise.

“Hopefully he gets a few games over there in the back half of that tournament and starts to ramp up his return,” Bailey said of Hazlewood.

“He’s reasonably experienced, and he’s very professional so he knows exactly what and where he’ll need to be to be at his best for the Ashes.

“We’re in constant communication, as we are with all of the players around that, so he’ll be building and in some ways that smaller workload – through four-over bursts in the IPL – might be a nice build for him.”

Bailey has noted claims from England captain Ben Stokes that he has requested fast, flat pitches for the five Ashes Tests, but indicated Australia would wait and see what sort of decks were served up rather than reading too much into pre-series headlines

But he declined to rule out the possibility one or more of Australia’s pace-bowling battery might play all six of the Tests in England despite the proximity of the matches, noting Cummins was the only one of the five-pronged attack to play all five Tests in 2019.

Given the high-octane, high-risk ‘Bazball’ approach England have adopted to Test cricket under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, the prospect of matches extending to all five available days seems as unclear as the likely weather for a series that will be finished before Britain reaches high summer.

And that’s another reason why Bailey was reluctant to speculate on how gruelling or otherwise the previously untried playing schedule will be for the 17-man squad
“You just don’t know the workload they’re going to get, from innings to innings or what days you end up bowling in Test matches,” he said.

“There’s two or three occasions when there’s very, very short turnarounds (between Tests) so we have to be aware of that.

“And knowing you’ve got some depth there, and some confidence in the guys you can bring in means you’ve got the opportunity to make sure you’ve got cherry-ripe bowlers whenever you need to.

“Clearly they (England) are playing some really good cricket, so we’ll deal with that as you do with any team when you get there.

“But I think our focus will primarily be on the way that we’re wanting to play.”(Cricket.com.au)
2023 Qantas Tour of the UK

World Test Championship Final: Wednesday June 7-Sunday June 11, The Oval
First Test: Friday June 16-Tuesday June 20, Edgbaston

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval
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