Despite their eight-wicket defeat against Australia in just two days in the Perth Test, England skipper Ben Stokes said that they would not alter their plans heading into the Pink Ball Test at Brisbane. However, former England captain Michael Vaughan has slammed that approach, calling it “amateurish”.
Vaughan advocated for England to make use of the time between the first and the second Test and get some pink ball practise in.
“Whether they like it or not, all these conversations are going to come back to England. It’s amateurish if England don’t go out and practice between now and then. What harm is it playing two days of cricket with the pink ball under lights? I can’t be so old school to suggest that by playing cricket they might get a little bit better? My method would be, you’ve got a pink-ball two-day game, you go and grab it, go and take it, play those two days and give yourself the best chance,” Vaughan was quoted as saying by the BBC.
The visiting team’s limited preparation coming into the first Test at Perth was already questioned by England greats. The English side had opted to head into the Ashes Down Under by playing just one warm-up game, that too against the England Lions rather than against local teams.
While there may not be much of a difference with how the red ball and the pink ball reacts, Australia have an intimidating record in the day-night Tests: the hosts have won 13 of their 14 day-night Tests, including all three they have played against England.
ALSO READ | ‘Bit shell-shocked’: Ben Stokes reacts to England’s eight-wicket hammering to Australia in first 2025-26 Ashes Test
What had Ben Stokes said after losing first Test?
The losing captain Stokes, while talking to Test Match Special on Saturday, had said they would not deviate from their plan.
Story continues below this ad
“All we are trying to do is give ourselves the best chance of how we believe we can win an Ashes series,” Stokes said. “We’ll let the dust settle on this and over the next couple of days we’ll work out whether a couple of guys going to play in that game is the right thing or whether keeping the team tight and making sure morale doesn’t drop is the alternative. We’ll work on that and come up with a plan.”
