‘Super-fit’ Australia Ready to Hit Ground Running in England

Justin Langer said his Australian squad are super fit and ready to hit the field before leaving Sunday for a white-ball tour of England, their first cricket since March.

The 21-man team met in Perth before boarding a subsequent flight, during which they will undergo multiple days of isolation in Derby owing to coronavirus restrictions.

Training will be allowed during their lockdown, and they will play four inter-squad warm-up games to get ready after nearly six months of inaction since the pandemic brought sport to a halt.

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We will travel to a bio-secure centre in Southampton for the first of the three Twenty20s on September 4 versus England, which has been back in play since early July.

Three one-day internationals against the 50-over world champions follow in Manchester.

Australia is taking on a larger-than-normal squad, partly because they will not be able to call anyone to the Bio-Security Touring Party, but they will also be able to ensure that they have enough players to play two teams in warm-up games.

“The reason we’re taking 21 is so we can play some good practice games over there,” said Langer.

“The guys have done plenty of technical work, they’re all super-fit so when we arrive in England, we get straight into match practice.

“That’s what we’ve asked the boys to be ready for, that they can start playing games and, hopefully, because we’ve got 21 very good players coming with us, we can have some really high intensity practice games.”

Skipper Aaron Finch, who will start alongside David Warner, with Steve Smith beating at three, led by Marnus Labuschagne, said that strong attention would be given to mental wellbeing inside the bio-secure zone, with a sports psychologist traveling with the squad.

“That’s going to be something that’s going to be a real issue, it’s going to be something to monitor heavily,” he said, with players not allowed out even to go for a meal.

– David and Goliath –

Finch skippers a squad that comprises three uncoupled stars in Daniel Sams, Riley Meredith and Josh Philippe, with a focus on the T20 World Cup next year in India, then on home soil in 2022, ahead of the 50-plus showpiece a year back.

Langer said it would be an unforgettable opportunity, even though none of them had a game against England.

“We’ll still be picking our best eleven, that’s how it’s always worked well in the Australian team,” he said.

“And for some of the younger guys, if they force their way in through performance in the practice games, that would be great.

“Otherwise it will just be nice to have them around and give them a feel of what it’s like to be inducted into the Australian cricket team.”

Australia was demolished 5-0 in a 50-plus match on their white-ball tour in 2018, as Langer was in control of a torrid first trip since taking over Darren Lehmann in the aftermath of the Smith and Warner ball-tampering controversy.

Langer admitted it was not an easy time.

“I didn’t know any of the players, the players didn’t know me. We’d come through a great crisis which had rattled everyone,” Langer said of the tour.

“We took on the best one-day team in the world at the time so it was a bit like David and Goliath and it was hard, it was really hard.

“But we’ve got two world-class players back in Steven (Smith) and David Warner, we’ve got our fast bowlers back. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (capt), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (vice-capt), Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa