England 'gamble' to avoid pink ball warm-up

ENGLAND have resisted calls to send senior players for a pink ball practice match ahead of the second Ashes Test, passing up the chance to spend more time in the middle.

- By RORY DOLLARD

A slipshod two-day defeat in the series opener at Perth left an 11-day gap in the tourists' schedule before the day/night Test in Brisbane and opened up the option of using next weekend's England Lions fixture in Canberra as a competitive tuneup for the first team.

Former captain Michael Vaughan said it would be "amateurish" not to send key men to the capital to experience a floodlit fixture against the Prime Minister's XI and head coach Brendon McCullum suggested he would be mulling over the possibility.

However, the decision has been made to keep the first-choice team together in Queensland, with squad players Josh Tongue, Jacob Bethell and Matthew Potts the only ones making the trip to Manuka Oval.