England are due to leave Australia on commercial flights on Wednesday, and their two unexpected days off have led to a bit of scrambling to get out sooner.
The two that managed to leave Tasmania were an appropriate pair: Dawid Malan and Sam Billings.
Malan is off back to the UK, where he will meet his first child, a daughter Summer Skye, for the first time, after she was born six weeks early on day two of the Hobart Test.
Billings, meanwhile, is on an epic journey across the world to Barbados. His stops are Sydney, Los Angeles, Miami, and finally Grantley Adams International Airport.
There, he will join up with the T20 side due to take on the West Indies in five T20s, starting on Saturday. It is hard to see, even with an extra couple of days, how he can play the first game, leaving Phil Salt and Tom Banton to fight for the gloves.
A friendly end
Pat Cummins admitted that he did not expect the Ashes to finish on Sunday, which is a surprise given he has bowled at England in 14 Test matches.
When it did, the Aussies celebrated hard, and the two teams shared a beer. Not in the time-honoured location of the home dressing room, but back at the hotel they have shared in central Hobart. Members from both teams stayed up late into the night chewing the fat, a fitting end to the friendly Ashes.
Absolutely Barmy
The Aussie celebrations continued the day after with a trip to art gallery MONA, then a few beers in Hobart, where they ran into… the Barmy Army. The travelling English support is limited to expats on this trip, but the Australians joined in with a rowdy rendition of Sweet Caroline.
Robinson’s serve
Bowling coach Jon Lewis is not the only member of England’s backroom staff to have a pop at Ollie Robinson’s conditioning. Head coach Chris Silverwood has followed his lead, saying he hopes the penny drops for Robinson about what is required at the highest level.
“He has learned a lesson this Test match about the stark reality of the fitness levels you need to compete at this level, they have been put in his face pretty bluntly,” he said.
“Hopefully the penny drops because we know he has been a real talent and he learns from it so it does not happen again.
“It was an objective of mine that we arrived here fit, lean and strong and the majority have done that. There has been some really good work behind the scenes to get most of the guys here in that condition. You only have to look at Jimmy [Anderson] to see what he is doing is phenomenal really to keep it up.”
Rock ’n roll that
The Women’s Ashes starts this week and will feature the Decision Review System, which is very good news. There will be two unsuccessful reviews per team, per innings in each of the limited overs formats and three unsuccessful reviews per team, per innings in the single Test match.
The England squad are now in Adelaide ahead of the first T20, on Thursday.
