Australia Players Told To Be Ready For England Tour As T20 World Cup Is Set To Be Postponed: Report

Australia players have been reportedly told to get ready for a white-ball series against England in September as the ICC T20 World Cup is expected to be postponed this week. This year’s T20 World Cup was scheduled to take place in October-November

However, the chances of the tournament going ahead is all but over. The ICC is expected to announce its final call on the fate of the competition later this month. And with the postponement of the tournament very much on the cards, Australia’s players have been asked to prepare themselves for the tour of England.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to be slotted during the October-November window which was initially assigned for the T20 World Cup. The BCCI has already made it clear that it is keen to conduct the tournament this year.

“Cricket’s World Cup is set to be officially postponed this week as Australia’s players are told to start preparing for comeback battle against England,” Australian newspaper ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported.

The report also stated that if Cricket Australia decides on allowing its players to play in the IPL, “..the ideal scenario would be they could go straight from the England limited-overs series to wherever the T20 league is held in the Middle East or Asia”

The Australian team is, therefore, now preparing for ODIs and T20 Internationals against England in an away series.

“Training for return to action in September is the strongest indication yet that Aaron Finch’s troops will head to the UK for a limited-overs tour in bio-security bubble …..,” the newspaper further stated.

The report states that a white-ball tour of England is yet to be officially confirmed but Australia’s pace bowlers are “building up their workloads for a return to play in September and players have been told to start preparing for another date with the Old Enemy.”

Last month, Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch had said he was ready to go to England to get cricket “up and going again”. His comments came just days after Australia’s home series against Zimbabwe was postponed due to the pandemic.

“We’re not exactly sure when our next game is going to be. In our mind we were planning for Zimbabwe, we were planning for England, and all going well, I think that was our next game, that’s what we are planning for,” he said.

“I am preparing to go to England and play, whether that happens we will wait and see. We just have to be really conscious of being ultra flexible. There might be a tour comes up at relatively short notice because we can get there, and that would be brilliant,” he added.

At present, West Indies are in England preparing to play a three-Test series, beginning this week, behind closed doors at Southampton‘s Rose Bowl, before playing back-to-back Tests at Old Trafford. The series will mark the resumption of international cricket after action around the world was halted in March.

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