Cricket Australia has announced the following line up under the banner of “Australia A” to take on an English XI at Bellerive Oval between 6 and 9 November:

Moises Henriques (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Trent Copeland, Ben Cutting, Alex Doolan, Callum Ferguson, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Michael Klinger, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine

I have no real cavil with this team as selected. Indeed I like the batting line up that has been selected noting the failure to inclusion Aaron Finch for the first class fixture which I believe is the right move.

That said, it is the names that are missing from the Australia A team sheet that gives an eye to who will be in the first test match squad for the game at the Gabba.

It is understood that Cricket Australia will announce the line up for the 1st test at the Gabba on 12 November. Frankly though, why do they not just name the team now? The logic here is simple: there are 3 first class games between now and 21 November. One of those matches starts after 12 November so form in that match will not count for anything. Players currently in India with the Australian team will not return in time to play in the first Shield game which starts this Wednesday. And, finally and most compellingly, George Bailey has not been selected in the Australia A team. Nor has Fawad Ahmed.

All of this suggests to me that Cricket Australia already knows who it will select for the 1st test. This is because, absent such a decision already having been made I feel absolutely certain George Bailey would be in the Australia A line up. I am even more certain that Fawad Ahmed would be in the line up.

If Cricket Australia have already made up their minds: why continue with the charade of the Sheffield Shield rounds being a selection trial that they obviously are not? Why not just name the team for the first test now and be done with it?

The first test team will be as follows regardless of Sheffield Shield form:

Clarke (c), Warner, Rogers, Watson, Bailey, Smith, Haddin, Johnson, Harris, Siddle, Lyon, Ahmed (12th man)

Indeed: David Warner could score 4 ducks in four innings of the two Sheffield Shield games before the first test team is names and he will still be selected. That is how sure I am CA already know the team they will select. I hope I am wrong but the predictability of Cricket Australia at the moment tells me that, absent an injury, I am a short price favourite to resoundingly right.

Today marks 75 days till the first test of the 2013/14 Ashes series in Brisbane. To say I am worried about Australia's preparation for this series, already, would be an understatement. Here are five reasons why:

1. Cricket Australia still has not announced the First Class Schedule

It is 7 September and no one knows what will be the schedule of first class fixtures to be played in Australia in advance of the first test. One would have thought that Cricket Australia would have been focused on getting as many first class fixtures in before the first test match to allow for the players playing in said test matches to prepare however that does not present at the moment as being the case.

2. Short form impositions before the series

In the next 75 days the Australian team will play in 13 one day internationals and 2 T20 games. Also during this span the Champions League T20 tournament will be played in India. The imposition of this short form cricket before the first test means there are some players who are in the frame for the first test who may have no opportunity to play first class cricket before that test.

3. England seems to be getting its preparation right

Is it any surprise that the ECB is setting things up well for this coming series? Converse to the Australian preparation, England's key players are not playing in the current ODI series against Australia under the aegis of getting some rest and then will have two county games to play in, if they wish to, and then three first class games in Australia before the first test. That is strikingly a much better preparation schedule than that some of Australia's likely first test players will have.

4. The Captain's Back

Michael Clarke is a key player for Australia: scratch that … he is the key player for Australia in the coming Ashes tour. He has a chronic back problem that has needed to me managed in recent years. Whilst I love the sentiment of Darren Lehmann in stating that Clarke will play when he is fit but I worry that every time he plays a short form fixture he is at risk of his back ailment flaring up and, by extension, at risk of missing the first test.

5. Fringe players finding “form” in the short form fixtures

Aaron Finch scoring runs and Fawad Ahmed taking wickets worries me given the propensity of John Inverarity and his merry band of selectors to pick “fads” (players in form in the short form but with no semblance of form in first class cricket) to represent Australia in the baggy green. If the form of said fads continues there is a real risk that they will end up wearing a baggy green come 21 November.

There is a lot that could go wrong between now and 21 November. I worry though that Australia is not putting itself in the best position possible to win back the Ashes through, in four out of five cases above, decisions of its own making. I hope I am wrong but will continue to worry I am right until the first ball is bowled in 75 days time.

Posted with Blogsy

There are now 85 days until the first test of the 2013-14 Ashes Series in Australia starts at the ‘Gabba. Off the back of a 3-0 drubbing in England Australia will be looking win back the urn on home soil for the first time since the epic 2006-07 series. Obviously then the preparation for this series will be vital.

For those wondering, here is the schedule of games the Australia team has committed to in the next 85 days:

If the ODI / T20 squad stays the same for the tour of India as it is now in England the following players from the 5th Ashes test at the Oval (or on the fringe of selection for that team) will be involved in that tour:

· Clarke

· Faulkner

· Hughes

· Smith

· Starc

· Wade

· Warner

· Watson

Assuming those players are all selected for the tour of the India, I have been left to ponder what first class cricket they might get to play before the first test match. Herein lies a problem: the first class schedule for the 2013/14 season has not been published yet. Of course we know when the BBL circus will occur but less than a month away from the historical start of a Sheffield Shield season and a schedule of games is not to be found.

The one game that has been locked in is an Australia A fixture against England starting in Hobart on 6 November. That being the case, the only guide for what might be happening in first class cricket in Australia is that which happened last year. Broadly speaking, there were four Sheffield Shield fixtures played before the first test last year by each team on the following rough dates (these dates are skewed by NSW having to start their season early to play in a T20 competition):

· 1st week in October

· 4th week in October

· 1st week in November

· 2nd week in November

Given those rough timings and assuming Cricket Australia sticks with that methodology when setting the fixtures, anyone taking part in the short form tour to India is only likely to get one first class game of cricket before the first test match at best. That is, of course, predicated on players being released by Cricket Australia to play said cricket which has not happened much in the past.

Does this not all smack of a team that is going to be behind the 8 ball preparation wise for the 1st test? This is a tour in our own backyard and yet we do not seem enamoured to set things up so that our team is well prepared and ready to play long form cricket? Surely the best way to prepare for long form cricket is to play long form cricket but if things go they were they are projected the obvious prospect is that at least four of our starters at the ‘Gabba will NOT have played a long form game before that test starts.

If preparation for the Ashes series and striving to rest the Urn back from England is Cricket Australia’s principal goal for this summer of cricket there is an easy two phased answer to all of this:

1. Send an Australian “A” team to India and keep anyone projected to be in the first test team at home in Australia; and

2. Schedule the Sheffield Shield games so that:

a. There are four of them before first test starts; and

b. There is a gap between the first test and the last Shield game of no more than seven days; and

c. Actually make the players projected to be in the test team play in all of those Shield games before the first test match.

That strategy works only though in a world where the governing body seeks to prepare test cricketers by playing long form cricket. Here is how I expect Australia’s preparation to actually occur:

1. Australia will send a full squad to India for the seven one day fixtures.

2. Cricket Australia will only schedule 2 Sheffield Shield games before the first test because they have to fit in the abridged 50 over competition before Christmas so that the BBL can run for 2 months.

3. Players will not be released to play for the States because Cricket Australia holds “preparation” camps for squad members not in India on the dates of the Sheffield Shield games BUT will be released to play in the Ryobi Cup.

In that scenario none of the combatants striding onto the Gabba on 21 November will have played long form cricket before that test starts. You scoff: but it has happened before!

One can only hope that sanity will prevail but one worries that this Australian team is going to go into this series bizarrely under prepared. If that is the case then Cricket Australia will have no one to blame but itself.