Ashes 2017: England Women cover all bases for revenge mission Down Under

While one England cricket team worry about a continuing police investigation before making their way to Australia, another side have been preparing for theirs in situ and at ease. Next Sunday, England Women will begin their Ashes campaign, looking to reclaim a trophy ripped from them in 2015, fuelled as much by revenge as building on World Cup success.

The team arrived in Brisbane more than a week ago, earlier than planned and at the behest of the head coach, Mark Robinson, who wanted to ensure the controllables – jet-lag, the weather, match-sharpness – were kept in check. For all England’s free expression that means they enter the 2017 Ashes a more battle-ready entity than two years ago, thanks to his meticulous planning.

“We seem to be in a good place,” Robinson says, mindful that he will probably learn more about the players in the next few weeks than he did during the euphoria of a home World Cup. Eight days after that Lord’s final the players were back in Kia Super League action before another eight-day gap and then Ashes preparation got under way. Physical and mental reserves will be tested.

In the lead-up to the first of three one-day internationals, there are matches against the Shooting Stars (essentially, Australia A) before a three-day game to warm up for the sole Test (a pink ball day-night affair at North Sydney Oval). Then England return to the T20 format for the first time since July 2016 to finish the series. Two points are on offer for the limited-overs matches, with four available for the winners of the Test. The ODIs also count towards picking up points for the ICC Women’s Championship to earn qualification to the 2021 World Cup, just in case there was not enough to keep tabs on in this multi-format series.

This is when Robinson’s experience of county cricket comes to the fore, where jumping from one format to the other in a short space of time is the norm. “I generally found that players go up gears easier than they can go down them. So, I think, going from a Twenty20 to a four-day game is quite hard. But going the other way is easier: the adrenaline of a T20 game will generally take care of itself.” The key juncture, then, will be the step from ODIs, where England are world champions, to the rarity of a Test.

In 2015, England’s muddled thinking and an approach that smacked of preconceived ideas of how Test cricket is played produced a drab, uninspiring display, hampered by an awful pitch at Canterbury as Australia won by 161 runs. “They probably listened to too many commentators at times about what they should do,” concludes Robinson, who watched the Test at home. A warm-up at Chelmsford in September helped players and coaches find out what knowledge there was on the long-form game and what needed to be honed. It was winning the Perth Test in 2014, worth six points at the time, that won England the series last time they travelled to Australia.

This is still an Ashes series, of course, and even in the absence of their talismanic captain, the injured Meg Lanning, Australia have stepped up the verbals. Their coach, Matthew Mott, has asked his players to be more aggressive and uphold the “aura” of an Australia team. That was echoed loud and clear when the wicketkeeper-batsman Alyssa Healy vowed she, personally, would “bring the bitch back”, believing the number of domestic tournaments springing up across the globe has “made everyone too nice”.

While four half-centuries in 102 international innings is hardly forbidding, there is bite behind Healy’s bark. England were riled by her jibes from behind the stumps, most notably on the final day of the Canterbury Test in 2015, capitulating to 101 all out in their second innings. While this England side were able to hold their own throughout the World Cup, especially at Bristol where Australia were beaten by just three runs, a month-long sustained attack will test even the most experiences nerves.

In the middle, that will be led by Ellyse Perry and a batting depth unlike any other. Beth Mooney and Nicole Bolton have built an understanding as openers while a middle-order marshalled by the new captain, Rachael Haynes, has been around the block time after the time. The 20-year-old Ashleigh Gardner is an x-factor talent that seems on the verge of going big, too. England’s own batting group, led by Tammy Beaumont, Sarah Taylor and the captain, Heather Knight, can dictate matters, but it is Australia’s battles with Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole, aided by the up-and-at-them left-arm spinner Alex Hartley, that may well be where this series will be decided. The sideshow will be Perry’s duel with Nat Sciver to claim back the tag of all-round entertainer.

A clearer eye on detail means that England’s options extend beyond the 15 that travelled out there together, which includes another left-arm spinner in the exciting 18-year-old Sophie Ecclestone. The England and Wales Cricket Board organised for Amy Jones and Kate Cross to play out in Perth for Western Fury in the Women’s National Cricket League, while Tash Farrant is also due to fly out to Australia for a stint of club cricket. All three give England injury cover and flexibility to make changes to their squad for the different formats.

“It’s the old army adage: no plan survives contact with the enemy,” jokes Robinson, but he knows that rarely have an England side come to Australia better prepared and in better shape than this one.