FTM Disco Pants

I think it would be fair to say that ever since Andrew Strauss hoisted the little urn above his head at The Oval he and Andy Flower have been preparing for this winter Ashes tour. Squad rotation and team bonding camps being the most obvious to us outsiders although you can also be sure that many more intricate details have been pored over behind the scenes.

From the notable physical enhancement of Steven Finn to the introduction of Eoin Morgan in an attempt to adjust the mindset of the team no stone has remained unturned. Is this the best prepared England side to ever travel to Australia for an Ashes tour? Or have Flower and Strauss become to anal in their preparation and are in danger of losing sight of the bigger picture?

Perhaps the most obvious hazard is that the players arrive at the first at The Gabba at their peak, and are unable to maintain that level over the course of the six weeks which the Ashes will be played.  On the contrary, should they win in Brisbane adrenaline and confidence should provide a suitable boost to maintain levels of performance.

The big tests will come when England are forced to spend inevitably long periods in the field. The sight of Steve Harmison sweating buckets is one we are not likely to see among this group of well conditioned players. However, hours spent out in the heat of an Australian summer will take their toll on any player and coping with that could prove crucial.

On a different but equally important note the mental freshness of the players could be a huge factor. The mental problems which Marcus Trescothick famously battled are clearly far too intricate to go into detail about in this blog, but it appears that England’s selectors are finally realising the seriousness of his condition and the causes.

Thankfully the likes of Beefy, Gower and Nasser, with their ‘get on with it’ attitudes, aren’t involved in making these types of assessments. But the decision to rest Strauss, James Anderson and others at various times throughout the last 18 months could prove to be a masterstroke come the end of this series.

Only time will tell whether Strauss and Flower have got things right in terms of preparation and results will have the final say on how they have gone about it. But, in my opinion, this is by far the best prepared England side to travel to Australia for an Ashes series, ever.