England to play 50-over warm-up in stark Ashes contrast

Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid ruled out through injury left Joe Root as the sole England player with more than 50 caps in the side for the third ODI against Sri Lanka. England have endured a difficult run in 50‑over cricket this year but have strung together three consecutive victories, guaranteeing at least 20 official ODIs before the next World Cup in South Africa. Brendon McCullum remarked, “Aside from Jos, Joe and Adil Rashid, there's not a batch of acquisition successful that side,” adding, “We're going to effort and enactment connected a smattering of warm-up games to effort and get guys up to velocity arsenic rapidly arsenic we can.” The warm‑up schedule includes fixtures ahead of England’s Test tours of South Africa and Bangladesh this winter, as well as the one‑off 150th‑day Test versus Australia in Melbourne scheduled for March. Those arrangements were confirmed before McCullum stood down and Stephen Fleming assumed the Test manager role earlier this summer. Following the Ashes, the ECB and Cricket Australia have entered talks over a reciprocal agreement intended to give visiting sides improved preparation ahead of future Ashes contests. England suffered a heavy defeat in the opening Ashes Test at Perth, losing inside two days last year, and were subsequently outplayed in the next two matches to surrender the series at the earliest possible juncture. Looking ahead, England will contest three ODIs and five T20s in Australia between 13 November and 2 December, followed by a 50‑over tri‑series in Pakistan against the hosts and Sri Lanka earlier this month.