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Allan Border Slams Australia To Prioritise IPL 2023 Over Ashes, WTC Final

image-li08da5sMitchell Starc alongside Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood (Twitter)

Allan Border has criticised the Australian team for not playing any warm-up match before the upcoming World Test Championship final and the subsequent Ashes series.

While the WTC final against India kicks off from June 7 at The Oval in London, the Ashes series will commence from June 16 at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Cricket Ground.

Notably, several Australian players from the upcoming Test squads like David Warner, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green recently participated in the IPL 2023 season for their respective franchises. Moreover, Green is still in India as his Mumbai Indians line-up made it to the playoffs.

Allan Border lashes out at Australia before Ashes 2023

Former Australian captain Allan Border has taken a dig at the current team for honouring their IPL 2023 contracts over Test match preparations.

He questioned why Pat Cummins and co. are not playing any warm-up games before the Tests in England and feared that the decision might come back to haunt the visitors.

Speaking on Fox Cricket, Border said:

"I don't care how hard you work in the nets, nothing replaces game time. It just doesn't feel right not to play any cricket leading into an Ashes series. I just think that's fraught with danger... there's something gnawing at me saying it's the wrong decision."

The former cricketer also added that the Australian Test players should have ditched their IPL 2023 contracts to make an early arrival to England for preparations.

"I get it, we've got IPLs and T20s, I understand. The game's moved on. But I think there's an opportunity there for us to go to England early and play a couple of games... just to polish things off a bit."

Amidst Border’s claims of Australian players not preparing for Tests, it is to be noted that Hazlewood took an early leave from RCB this season owing to side soreness. Moreover, David Warner and Mitchell Marsh are also set to join the Australian training camp soon as Delhi Capitals were crashed out from the IPL playoffs race.

Meanwhile, players like Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Marcus Harris are already assessing the English conditions through the ongoing County Championship.