England v Australia A

England have had a decent build-up so far – a win over Western Australia that was pretty comfortable in the end and easily the better of a draw against South Australia. It was good to see them playing proper first class cricket as well, unlike the glorified practices that they indulged in in 2006/07. All of the batsmen have had time in the middle and the bowlers are clearly so confident in their preparations that they’ve de-camped to Brisbane rather than travel to Hobart for the game against Australia A. Compared to some Ashes tours of recent years, things are moving along positively serenely, although it’s worth remembering that in 1986/87, when they last won the Ashes in Australia, the warm-up games were so bad that journalist Martin Johnson infamously described as them as ‘having only three weaknesses: they can’t bat, they can’t bowl and they can’t field’.

All is not entirely rosy, however. Although all the batsmen have scored some runs they haven’t tended to do it at the same time, particularly in the first innings, which was a problem that they also had in the summer. Steven Finn also seems to have been struggling slightly, hence the rather overblown praise of his bowling in the second innings at Adelaide. Andy Flower is a lot better placed to make this judgment than I am, but it might have been prudent to give him a run out against Australia A. On the other hand, it will be useful practice for England’s second string bowlers, who wouldn’t want to have to go into a test completely cold, and in particular for Ajmal Shahzad to prove that he should have been on the full tour. If whether or not to rest bowlers is the England management’s biggest headache then they must be pretty pleased with the way that the tour is progressing.

Australia A, on the other hand, will have players who are keen to make a point, both those who have been named in the seventeen man squad and who, therefore, will feel that a good performance could push them even closer to a test cap and those who were not named and will want to prove the selectors wrong. We will be in a better position to evaluate England’s chances and, especially, their batting line-up, after this game.