Melbourne: Australian cricket management has started planning for the next year’s Ashes series as they aim to end their losing streak against England on the English soil.
Since the 2019 Cricket World Cup is scheduled to take place right before the Ashes series, Cricket Australia’s (CA) head of cricket operations Peter Roach said that they would be sending Australia A team for intensive practice session in England during the World Cup which could later be joined by the players appearing in the reputed ODI tournament.
“We are acutely aware of the difficulty in having a marquee series like the Ashes so soon after a Cricket World Cup. To that end, we will have our Australia A team touring before the Ashes begins, and we have plans in place that, even if we make the World Cup final, our World Cup players that form part of our Ashes campaign will still play at least one four-day match in preparation, as well as being involved in an elongated pre-Ashes camp,” Cricket.com.au quoted Roach, as saying.
“Should we bow out of the World Cup earlier, there will be opportunities to feed our players into Australia A four-day program,” he added.
By hatching an early plan for the Ashes, CA is aiming at assessing the overall development of the players which will be useful for the Australian cricket in the long-term.
Though Australia had thrashed the English side 4-0 in last year’s Ashes series, their last victory in the tournament on the foreign soil came way back in 2001.
The Ashes series is slated to be held in 2019 from August 1 to September 16.
ANI