‘Don’t care how…’: Allan Border slams Australia’s decision to skip warm-ups before WTC final, Ashes 2023

Former Australian captain Allan Border has slammed Pat Cummins & Co.’s decision to skip warm-up games before the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final and Ashes 2023. The Australian Test team will lock horns with Team India in the forthcoming WTC final, to be held early next month at The Oval, London, which will be followed by the Ashes 2023 edition in the United Kingdom. Australia have backed out of playing warm-ups and will, instead, focus on high-intensity training camp at Beckenham, including center-wicket practice and net sessions.

However, Border — who led Australia to their first ODI World Cup triumph in 1987 — isn’t impressed. He feels nothing can replace game time and feels the decision is ‘risky’ ahead of an ICC final and Ashes series versus arch-rivals England.

‘NOTHING REPLACES GAME TIME’

“I don’t care how hard you work in the nets, nothing replaces game time,” Border told ‘Fox Cricket’. He further opined, “It just doesn’t feel right not to play any cricket leading into an Ashes series. I just think that’s fraught with danger… there’s something gnawing at me saying it’s the wrong decision.”

“I’m really surprised we’re just allowing the Ashes tour to be so condensed with no cricket between the games, but that’s the way it is. I get it, we’ve got IPLs and T20s, I understand. The game’s moved on. But I think there’s an opportunity there for us to go to England early and play a couple of games… just to polish things off a bit,” Border added.

Talking about Team India, players have started to leave for the UK in different batches as some of the WTC final-bound players are still invovled in IPL 2023. Even Rohit Sharma & Co. will also skip warm-up matches due to the ongoing English County Championship. As the WTC is an ICC event, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is under no duty to organise practice matches for visiting teams.

Cummins-led Australia head into the WTC summit clash as the No. 1 ranked Test side. They lost their last Test series in the run-up to the finale to India, 2-1 in the subcontinent, but will be confident taking on India at the neutral venue.