The seven-wicket mauling by South Africa in the opening ODI at Headingley on Tuesday was ugly. Yet there were mitigating circumstances given this was a series that begun just two days after the conclusion of the Hundred and that England’s weary players had gone three months without playing 50-over cricket.
However, the schedule is clearly not helping England, a point underlined by the fact that there will be less than 48 hours between the end of the first ODI and the start of the second at Lord’s on Thursday.
Brook was one of six players in England’s XI in Leeds who had been involved in the gruelling five-Test series against India earlier in the summer. He had three days’ rest after that emotionally draining centrepiece of the summer before he started playing in the Hundred as the Northern Superchargers captain.
SEALED WITH A SIX! South Africa smash England in the first ODI at Headingley pic.twitter.com/6tBgJd9HRK
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) September 2, 2025This jam-packed schedule does not get any easier. England travel to New Zealand for a white-ball tour in October, with Brook likely to lead a squad that will contain several others involved in the Ashes.
Before that, there will be less than three weeks between the three-match T20 series in Ireland and the departure for New Zealand. Brook and several other all-format stars are being rested for that jaunt to Dublin.
This relentless schedule doesn’t stop after the Ashes either. England start a white-ball tour of Sri Lanka less than a fortnight after the final Test against Australia in Sydney. Then there’s a T20 World Cup on the sub-continent straight after that.
England can have no excuses for their dismantling against South Africa (Photo: Getty)Of course, Test cricket should be the priority. But the economics for someone like Overton don’t make sense. Others will surely follow him.
It’s why England will play just one three-day warm-up game before the Ashes and even that is only against the Lions. Gone are the days of several tough tour matches against Australian opposition to acclimatise to conditions.
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Richard Thompson, the England & Wales Cricket Board chairman, defended the Ashes build-up back in July, saying the tour of New Zealand would be “good preparation” for Australia. Yet switching between formats is not easy, as we saw in Leeds earlier this week.
But it’s not happening. England have gone into recent Test series in India, Pakistan and New Zealand with minimal preparation and won the first Test. It’s telling, though, they won just one of those series.
That’s not saying they cannot win Down Under this winter. But England have to ask themselves if they’re giving themselves the best chance. A lack of preparation could be used as a valid excuse for a series defeat. But if that comes to pass, they would only have themselves to blame.
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