Ashes latest: Ben Stokes' England set for tough warm-up against talented England Lions side

The start of the Ashes is just over a week away now, with England’s final preparations taking place at Lilac Hill, Perth on Thursday when the England Lions are tasked with providing one final sparring session before the main event.

I don’t mind it all. Plenty have had their say, questioning England’s approach and preparation, suggesting First Class opposition would offer a more suitable test, but those days are long gone and Australia would in all probability field a pub team capable of offering very little in the way of worthwhile competition.

I think we need to understand that the sand has now shifted under our feet. Franchise cricket and a packed schedule has done that. You only have to look at the case of Shubman Gill and his recent schedule for a perfect illustration.

India’s captain played in both home Tests against the West Indies recently, before hopping on a plane to Australia the following day and playing in the entirety of the ODI and T20I series. That last series finished on Saturday, and on Friday Gill will flip the coin at Eden Gardens when his side kick off another Test series against world champions South Africa.

Not many warm-up matches for Shubman there, but that is just the modern way. The new normal for international cricketers. England are no different, I don’t think they will use preparation as an excuse should the first Test not follow their script.

In fact, the Lions really ought to provide a stern examination for England's main squad. Coached by Andrew Flintoff, the group they have taken Down Under is laced with talent and crucially, full of hungry, young cricketers with aspirations to progress to full international honours, or in some cases, resume their international careers.

A fresh-faced James Anderson made his England debut in a ODI at the MCG on the Ashes tour of 2002/2003, after the Test squad had been ravaged by injuries and there was a white-ball triangular series to be played between the third and fourth Tests. The rest, as they say, is history.

Rehan Ahmed was arguably unlucky to miss out on selection for the main squad following a wonderful summer in county cricket, so expect him to be champing at the bit, similarly Jordan Cox who would’ve debuted in New Zealand last winter were it not for an untimely injury.

The Rew brothers are two outstanding young batting prospects who made giant strides for Somerset last summer, similarly Asa Tribe and Ben Kellaway of Glamorgan. Regular readers of these pages will know by now how highly I rate Kellaway’s all-round skills.

Sonny Baker ended the summer in England colours in the white-ball formats and possesses the type of raw pace that would make him a likely candidate for the main squad should injuries crop up – and what about Matthew Fisher?

It was interesting to note that Fisher wasn’t awarded any sort of England contract when the new list of central contracts was announced last week, that dispute the 28-year-old having long been on the radar of those making these decisions, so much so that he was handed his Test cap in Bridgetown in the spring of 2022.

Injuries have held Fisher back in a career that doesn’t yet feel like it has lived up to early expectations, but moving to Surrey from Yorkshire at the beginning of last season was a bold move, one that signalled his intentions. And the early omens have been encouraging.

Like every other seamer in England, there were some hard yards with the Kookaburra ball last summer, but Fisher has always had a big heart and an appetite for hard work, and he certainly did his fair share of heavy lifting when the pitches in England were awfully flat throughout that period.

I suspect it was those efforts with the Kookaburra ball that convinced England that Fisher should indeed be on this trip and the manner in which he finished the summer – by taking 11 wickets against Nottinghamshire in what almost became a dust-up between himself and Josh Tongue – was a reminder of just what Fisher has to offer as an attacking weapon.

Fisher gets good players out with good deliveries. He has always possessed that gift. Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Verreynne, Joe Clarke and Ben Slater all fell under his spell in that game with the type of hit-the-pitch seam and swing bowling that has been so effective in Australia over the last couple of years. Think Scott Boland.

Fisher is quicker than Boland and younger, too, and a strong display this week could quite easily catapult him into the main squad should the likes of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer prove unable to make it through the five-match series.

Born and bred in Yorkshire, Fisher comes from good stock. His two brothers are excellent cricketers, still very much the star turns at Sheriff Hutton Bridge, a club where Matthew first began to hone his craft and one that continues to punch hard in the Premier Division of the Yorkshire Premier League North.

It was this beginning that provided an excellent grounding. Those who know him speak warmly of Fisher – ‘a great lad’ they’d say on the boundary edge of Woodhouse Grange, or in the bar at Clifton Alliance.

I don’t dispute that, but I’ve always sensed that here is a young man who knows how good he is and has no ceiling to his ambitions. I don’t think a solitary Test will satisfy those ambitions, and nor should it.

With the likes of Fisher, Rehan and Baker highly likely eyeing this week as a chance to impress the likes of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, this warm-up game promises to be anything but. It ought to prove rock-solid, competitive preparation for the Ashes.

In fact, for the batters in particular, it could be tough work as someone like Ollie Pope tries to finally nail down his starting berth at number three and Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith and Joe Root try to find some form following a lean ODI series over in New Zealand.

And then there is Stokes himself, not seen on a cricket field since the fourth Test against India way back in July. Zak Crawley will be desperate to spend some time in the middle, too.

Make no mistake, this is a big week for England’s main squad, with the promise of a rigorous workout before the real deal a week on Friday.

And for a few in the Lions squad, they might just view this as the opportunity of a lifetime.