Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Heat comes on Australia’s preparation ahead of crucial Adelaide Test match

A spotlight has been turned on Australia’s preparation for the Adelaide Test as players return home after a disastrous start to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth. Australia has vowed to not make any drastic changes in the lead-in to the second Test from December 6 and could enter the clash with an unchanged team, despite on their worst-ever defeats on home soil. The under-fire Test team evacuated Perth early on Tuesday — what was slated to be the final day of the match — to return home for a week’s rest before they reunite in Adelaide. The only change to their preparation that has been flagged is arriving in Adelaide a day early. That means they are likely to hit South Australia on Saturday, six days out from the first ball at Adelaide Oval. Australia has never made wholesale changes to its side since George Bailey took over as chairman of selectors and in Andrew McDonald’s remarkably stable and successful stint in charge. That’s despite the miserable form of Marnus Labuschagne, who failed twice in Perth. But this sort of defeat — Australia’s seventh-heaviest by runs on home soil — normally triggers an overhaul. McDonald would not go as far as to confirm the team will stay the same, but both the head coach and Bailey on Tuesday confirmed they were sticking fat with the same 13-man squad. It leaves West Australian Josh Inglis as the reserve batter again. “The same people in that change room are the same people that will be in Adelaide,” McDonald said. Australian greats are calling for the team’s struggling batters, particularly the desperately out-of-form Labuschagne to play more cricket this weekend. The Prime Minister’s XI will play a two-day pink-ball tour match against India in Canberra across this weekend and club cricket matches will also be played on Saturday. “It was a terrible weekend. We went into that match with absolutely no excuses, the preparation was absolutely perfect for what they wanted,” wicket-keeping great Ian Healy said on SEN. “I had fears that they were a little underdone and we were light on for runs and they emerged, they certainly did emerge. “They are doing it again for Adelaide, they are giving themselves the whole time off. I might have used it more constructively than that, but let’s see how it goes. “I would like a fair percentage of our players to play grade cricket on the weekend too.” Captain Pat Cummins hosed down any thoughts of giving players and extra game post-match on Monday night. “I don’t think so, we might change our prep a little bit, we might get to Adelaide a day early with this game finishing, give us an extra day of preparation leading into that second Test,” he said. “But we will go home for a couple of days and regroup in Adelaide.” Former Test opener Ed Cowan said Australia deserved to be trusted around their ideal preparation while they were winning, but warned it needed to come under scrutiny after this result. “Preparation has to come under the microscope. You can’t see this Test in isolation, you have to see what the build-up is for all these players, you have to have seen the selections for this Test, but over the preceding two years probably and what you see is almost the emergence a reaping what you have sown situation,” he told ABC’s Grandstand Cricket Podcast. “In terms of preparation you have got these guys who haven’t played a lot of red-ball cricket, their last Test was in March, against match-hardened, focused, hungry team in India. “It was like chalk and cheese, it was almost this sense of arrogance of ‘we’ll do our own prep, you have got to trust us, we like being fresh, don’t worry about us we’re fine’. Well guess what, we’re worried, and it’s all fine until it’s not.” South Australian pair Travis Head and Alex Carey left Perth on an early flight to Adelaide on Tuesday morning. Head denied claims from former England captain Michael Vaughan their was a rift in Australia’s playing group. Vaughan’s comments came after Josh Hazlewood responded to a question around their preparation for the final day’s play by saying: “You probably have to ask one of the batters that question”. “I’m sort of relaxing and trying to get a bit of physio and a bit of treatment, and I’m probably looking mostly towards next Test and what plans we can do,” he said. Head claimed commentators had “picked the bones out of a comment” but said it was “fine to be critical, we understand that”. “We stuck together, we had some good conversations, there is definitely no factions, all the boys hung out together last night,” he told 7NEWS. Australia will also be sweating on the fitness of all-rounder Mitch Marsh, who Cummins revealed is battling injury niggles. Marsh will remain in Perth until joining the team in Adelaide and has been backed by Cummins to bowl in all five Tests. Cummins said he was confident the all-rounder was still in the best six batters in the country regardless of his bowling fitness, but it has been reported Beau Webster and Aaron Hardie are in the frame to be added to the squad as cover.