The 2025/26 Ashes cricket tour to Australia is officially underway with the England squad now assembled in Perth.
However unlike most Ashes tours, England will play no warm-up matches against Australian domestic teams to help acclimatise to local conditions before the first Test match begins at Perth Stadium on Friday 21 November.
Instead, the only preparation under match conditions will be a three-day internal game against the England Lions, which is essentially an ‘England A’ side made up of emerging and fringe squad players.
That match begins on Thursday 13 November and will be played at Lilac Hill, a leafy suburban cricket ground in Caversham around 15km north-east of the Perth CBD.
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While the decision to shun more warm-up matches has been criticised by many former players, current England coaches and senior players have defended the move.
“It’s something that’s worked really well for us before, keeping it short, sharp and intense,” England batting coach Marcus Trescothick explained from New Zealand last month when he was with the England white ball squad.
“There’s so much cricket being played, it’s not necessarily about having five (warm up) games because that has an impact later in the series, if you take that time and add that to a trip, you’re there for four months, that’s really tricky.”
England captain Ben Stokes also fired back at complaints over the team’s schedule, labelling critics as ‘has beens’.
In the last three Ashes tours of Australia, England has failed to win a Test match, let alone a series.
Ahead of its most recent success in 2010/11 the England squad arrived a full month before the first Test and played three first-class games against Western Australia, South Australia and an Australia A side.