Ashes 2021-22: England’s Test skipper, Joe Root recently shed light on the England team’s preparations ahead of an important five-match Ashes Test series against Australia. Joe Root isn’t pleased with the team’s preparations as things haven’t gone as planned for them. Rain played spoilsport during the first warm-up match between the senior team and the England Lions. Add to that, rain is, once again, going to intervene in the upcoming four-day fixture between the aforementioned sides, starting from 30th November.
Notably, the upcoming four-fixture between the senior team and the England Lions will be the last competitive fixture before England play the first Test of the Ashes series, scheduled to start on 8th December in Brisbane. The players, who featured in the T20 World Cup will be joining the rest of the squad, for the warm-up fixture and Root emphasized the need to be mentally prepared in case the opportunities for game-time out in the middle are limited.
“It’s been unusual, having spent a period of time in quarantine and training within that quarantine phase, and then coming to Brisbane,” Root told reporters. We haven’t had that three-day game, as we would have liked, but ultimately, it was always going to be the case, at the back of this World Cup, that tomorrow was really the first day as a squad that we would get together, with those World Cup guys joining us.”
“We’ve done a lot of brilliant planning in the last couple of years, about mentally, how we can be ready, and what’s going to work on different surfaces and different grounds and having a really good idea of how we’re going to break down their team. But it has been unusual, it’s been different to a lot of previous tours, whether that be here or elsewhere.
The English skipper has also clarified that the upcoming four-day fixture won’t be having first-class status as the team management is keen to give chances to as many players as possible before the marque series begins.
“The quality of the players will be there from both teams and, because of the lack of preparation that we’ve had in that previous three-day game, having that extra bit of flexibility to make sure we can get as many guys what they need throughout these four days is going to be crucial,” said Joe Root.
The first Test of the five-match Ashes 2021-22 series is scheduled to be played from 8th to 12th December 2021 at The Gabba.
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