Win Projections to be updated soon
Brisbane, 7 December 2025:
The England and Wales Cricket Board is prepared to offer Australia its choice of warm-up facilities before the 2027 Ashes in hopes of securing similar access when England tour in 2029-30. The move comes as England’s own buildup to the current series faces sharp criticism after heavy defeats in the first two Tests.
England entered the series underdone, losing the opener inside two days in Perth and the second by eight wickets in Brisbane. “If I was an England supporter and had paid the money to come here, I’d be asking the ECB for a refund,” former captain Ian Botham said Sunday. “Because this team, for me, is not prepared.”
The squad arrived in Perth nearly three weeks before the first Test, but their only competitive cricket was a two-day intra-squad game against the Lions at Lilac Hill, a public ground with conditions far removed from the pace and bounce of Perth Stadium. Ollie Pope scored 100 and 90 in that match but has managed only 105 runs across four innings in the Ashes so far.
The ECB and Cricket Australia are now discussing a memorandum of understanding that would cover preparations for the next two Ashes series, ensuring both sides receive high-quality training facilities on surfaces similar to those used in Tests, along with strong opposition when required.
India received exclusive access to the WACA ahead of their 2022-23 tour and went on to win the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by 295 runs, though Australia recovered to win three of the next four.
England had hoped for similar opportunities this year but were blocked by a Sheffield Shield fixture at the WACA, leaving only Australia’s own players—Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Michael Neser and Josh Inglis—to benefit from the conditions.
England were instead offered a warm-up match on a club ground in Adelaide, 1,500 miles from Perth. When they asked to move back to Western Australia, they were told only a ground of “similar quality” was available. Ahead of the day-night Test in Brisbane, they declined a pink-ball warm-up in Canberra, where conditions were deemed too different, sending their Lions squad instead.
Australia, meanwhile, tuned up for the 2023 Ashes by playing the World Test Championship final at The Oval, after holding a training camp at Beckenham with facilities they praised enough to return this year. “It feels like this is becoming the norm for Test tours,” chief selector George Bailey said in 2023. “There are more tours without warm-up matches than with them.”
