Aussies hatch plan to end Ashes drought

Australia's ambition to break their longest Ashes drought in Britain for more than 100 years will be aided by next year's warm-up program that allows Test specialists a lengthy preparation in English conditions at the same time as limited-overs players are involved in the World Cup.

As India are scrutinised for the quality and quantity of their preparations for the current series against a dominant England, Australia are looking to maximise the exposure their players will have to the Dukes ball prior to next summer's Ashes campaign.

Although a bulk of the Test outfit chasing their first series win on British turf since Steve Waugh's team in 2001 (pictured above) will be involved in the ICC World Cup one-day tournament that runs from late-May to mid-July, with the first Ashes Test starting on August 1.

To ensure familiarity with the English-manufactured ball known to swing more pronouncedly, as well as late-summer conditions likely to be similar to those India are currently experiencing, Australia will send an 'A-team' to undergo intensive match practice in the UK while the World Cup is in progress.

While that will include a number of white-ball matches early in the series, its predominant focus will be red-ball cricket to allow Test aspirants the likes of Usman Khawaja, Matthew Renshaw and Peter Handscomb a number of first-class hit-outs before the full Ashes squad is assembled after the World Cup.

Should Australia, currently ranked sixth in the world for ODI cricket, fail to reach the playoff stages of the World Cup then Test players in the white-ball squad could be slotted into the Australia A line-up for match practice against the Dukes ball.

The fortnight between the World Cup final and the first Test at Edgbaston would also allow time for a four-day warm-up match (or two) before Australia looks to redress a recent record that shows four consecutive Ashes series losses in the UK.

It is Australia's longest barren streak in the Old Dart since the tiny terracotta urn was first up for grabs over there in 1884.

Australia pursued a similar policy prior to the 2013 Ashes campaign when an Australia A team that included Test squad members not in the ODI set-up such as Khawaja, Ryan Harris, Jackson Bird and the late Phillip Hughes played a handful of first-class matches leading into the Tests.

That ploy led to allrounders Steve Smith and Ashton Agar being elevated to the Test squad on the strength of their performances for the 'A' team.

"We are acutely aware of the difficulty in having a marquee series like the Ashes so soon after a Cricket World Cup," CA's Head of Cricket Operations, Peter Roach, told cricket.com.au.

"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. 

"Should we bow out of the World Cup earlier, there will be opportunities to feed our players into the Australia A four-day program."

The move to have an auxiliary XI preparing in Test mode among England conditions represents a further step to address the shortcomings of previous Ashes visits, after a number of current and aspiring Test players undertook stints with county teams to hone their skills against the Dukes ball.

Most recently, that group included Khawaja, Renshaw and Shaun Marsh who all posted centuries in the UK first-class competition this summer, while Aaron Finch, Peter Siddle, Daniel Worrall, Hilton Cartwright, Joe Mennie and Travis Head also gained county experience with the red ball.

Those opportunities supplement the exposure players have gained at Sheffield Shield level where the Dukes ball – which retains its hardness and swings for longer than its Australia-made counterpart, the Kookaburra – has been used in part of the season for the past two summers.

And will feature again in the post-Christmas portion of next summer's Shield campaign.

Roach said while the introduction of the Dukes into the Shield competition was never seen as a 'silver bullet solution' to improving players' skills with and against the swinging ball, the quest for offshore Ashes success was unquestionably a contributing factor.

"One reason was to introduce bit of competitive tension into the market, more around the use of balls in the broader cricket community," he said.

"We feel that's been achieved and has probably benefited all parties, with the incentive to produce better balls and make them more affordable, but there's no doubt it was also seen as an opportunity to give us a better chance of winning in England.

"We believe it makes players more adaptable, allows selectors and coaches to see who is able to adapt fastest to the change in balls, and allows bowlers the chance to get used to the different characteristics.

"In the long-term, it isn't about just this one upcoming Ashes series – we need to keep assessing the development of our players, but the Ashes has always been a focus.

"That can be seen from the fact we didn't choose to introduce an (Indian manufactured) SG ball, we chose a Dukes ball with one eye on winning the Ashes over in England."

While Australia can point to an 11-6 winning advantage in the past 20 Ashes Test at home and away (with three draws), their record in the UK is inferior where, over that period, they have triumphed just twice.

With one of those victories in 2015 coming in a 'dead-rubber' fixture when the trophy had already been decided.

Not that Australia's record in the unique conditions that the UK affords is vastly out of step with the wider cricket world.

Since Waugh's team retained the Ashes 4-1 in 2001, only South Africa (twice, in 2008 and 2012), India (2007) and Sri Lanka (2014) have won Test series against England on British soil.

Having begun the current campaign as the world's No.1 ranked Test team, India is currently eyeing a 0-2 deficit after two matches and has a week to rebound from a pair of dismal batting efforts against England's rampant seamers at Lord's.

Similar to next summer's World Cup commitments, the pre-series Test preparation for a number of India's players was three weeks of white-ball fixtures against England before the opening Test at Edgbaston at the start of August.

That came after in the wake of a record-setting summer heatwave that led the tourists to request their sole first-class practice game, against Essex at Chelmsford, be pruned from four scheduled days down to three because of the extreme heat, and the lack of air-conditioning in local hotels.

Their specialist batters, with the glaring exception of skipper Virat Kohli's defiant double (149 and 51) at Edgbaston, have not posted a score of 30 between them as July's clear skies have given way to overhead cloud and rain in Birmingham and London.

But Kohli believes it is mental application rather than technical acumen that largely dictates whether players who have been raised in conditions where sustained swing bowling is a rarity are then able to cope when confronted by circumstances such as those prevailing at Lord's last weekend.

"You can play well in any conditions if you're mentally ready for it," Kohli said after his team was bowled out for 107 and 130 in a combined total of 82.5 overs to lose by an innings and 159 runs.

"If a batsman is clear in the head and is clear about the plans he is taking out to the middle then, if the ball does something on the pitch, you are in a position to counter it.

"You can't come here (England) and think the conditions are too difficult, because they're really not if you're prepared to counter them.

"Any conditions in the world can be easy or as difficult, as in India, and if you're not mentally 'there' it seems that the ball is doing a whole lot even when it's not."