England have 'no doubts' over Ashes prep but is it enough?

It is the biggest series of all but there will only be one - in-house - warm-up match for England.

After Saturday's third and final one-day international in New Zealand, England fly to Australia for three weeks of fine tuning before the first Ashes Test in Perth.

Their only competitive match before the series begins is a three-day warm-up against England Lions - their youthful development side. Will it be enough?

"There is nothing more the lads will want more than to raise their game as far as it has ever been, put batters under pressure, put bowlers under pressure," said Ed Barney, whose role as England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) performance director covers the Lions programme.

"I have no shadow of a doubt that three-day fixture will be a quality exposure that will continue to aid England in their preparation."

Legendary former all-rounder Lord Botham said this month England's lack of warm-ups against Australian state sides "borders on arrogance". The batting struggles in the ongoing ODI series in New Zealand has not dampened such talk.

It is no secret England have tried to use the white-ball tour to aid their preparation, easing their Test players back into competitive cricket, increasing the workloads of their fast bowlers and trying to get batters time in the middle.

Fast bowling trio Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood and Josh Tongue have also been with the squads working on their own programmes with the backroom staff.

For some it has worked. Limited-overs captain Harry Brook scored a century in the first ODI and looks to be in decent form, while fast bowler Jofra Archer quickly found his groove to take 3-23 in the second match - his first outing of the winter.

However, Joe Root, Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith, all playing for the first time since the start of September, have scored 43 runs between them in four matches - leading to the issue rearing its head.

"I understand where the question comes from, the history of the game," said Barney, asked whether the discussion around the pre-Ashes schedule is frustrating.

"The interesting question is - have you looked at the Future Tours Programme? Have you looked at franchise cricket and the fact that a multi-format player left the country on 13 October and if they play in every England commitment and play in the Indian Premier League and The Hundred they will have less than two weeks off between now and the end of September?

"There is a volume of cricket that takes place that means there is a constant balancing of red-ball, white-ball, franchise and domestic cricket commitments.

"We are confident in the set-up, the approach, the time the team have got together, the ability we have had to provide a set of different preparations that are optimal for different players."

With the increase in international and domestic white-ball cricket, the cricket landscape has changed beyond recognition since Botham's Ashes tours.

When England won the urn in 1986-87, they began with three warm-up matches against Australian state sides, played further tour matches between each of the first four Tests and white-ball matches between the final two.

There were 84 days between the first playing day of the tour and the conclusion of the Test series. This time there will be just 56.

On England's most recent victorious tour down under, in 2010-11 under Sir Andrew Strauss, they also played three competitive first-class matches prior to the first Test, won two and went on to claim the series 3-1.

When they returned under Sir Alastair Cook in 2013-14 they followed a similar schedule but were thrashed 5-0.

Before the 4-0 defeat in 2017-18, England played a two-day match and two first-class matches prior to the first Test, while in 2021-22, another 4-0 loss, Covid-19 restrictions allowed them only two intra-squad matches featuring the Lions.

Only 109 overs were possible across seven days in those matches because of rain. There is no perfect solution.

The current set-up can point to victories in series openers in both India and Pakistan last year as justification for their approach.

Neither of those tours included warm-up matches - the hierarchy preferred training camps in the United Arab Emirates - but England won the first Test of each, before going on to lose both series.

When India won a Test series in Australia in 2018-19 they played one four-day warm-up against a Cricket Australia XI prior to the first Test and played two against Australia A when they returned and won again in 2020-21.

It is yet to be confirmed whether this year's warm-up at Lilac Hill, which starts on 13 November, will feature a mix of squads to allow Test batters to face Test bowlers.

Having trained in an air-conditioned tent in Loughborough in recent weeks along with members of the Test side not in New Zealand such as captain Ben Stokes, a Lions squad packed with talent but with limited experience will depart for Australia this weekend.

Jordan Cox has been a regular in recent first-team squads but Rehan Ahmed, Matthew Fisher, Tom Hartley and Josh Hull are the only tourists capped at Test level.

It means England would be faced with a fresh-faced pick or the prospect of flying a replacement across the world were injury or loss of form to hit.

It has also led to questions around the purpose of the Lions side, whether it should be a Next Best XI or one looking to the future.

"The Lions is not a second team," said Barney, who replaced Mo Bobat in 2023.

"We are going after supporting the highest potential and the next best.

"We are always blending a balance of the highest potential, people we are excited about, whether with a foresight they might play for England in two to four years or we have some that might be next best in line, that is where we have the fluidity and optionality of who we select.

"There is always an element of that."