England sent batsman Ian Bell out to look on the bright side as the rain continued to pour in Sydney and injury clouds hung over wicketkeeper Matt Prior and batsman Kevin Pietersen.
Sussex player Prior has torn a calf and will miss the tourists’ final Ashes warm-up match against an Australian Invitational XI, which starts tomorrow.
Pietersen’s fitness is being monitored with the Surrey batsman taking only a small part in England’s indoor nets and drills at the SCG yesterday.
England were confined to indoor training due to the weather in Sydney. It is hardly the welcome they would have wanted in Australia’s biggest city, having spent much of the past week shivering and shel- tering through a sche- duled four-day fixture in Tasmania, which was more than halved in duration by bad weather.
There is more than a crumb of comfort in a favourable prognosis for Pietersen’s problem right knee after a scan and cortisone jab in Melbourne. And there is an unexpected opportunity for Jonny Bairstow, deputising for Prior, when it seemed he might spend much of this tour carrying drinks.
“I suppose it’s not ideal, but it gives a good opportunity to Jonny Bairstow,” said Bell of Prior’s absence this week.
“We’ve seen in the past how important it is to get the whole of the squad playing cricket before the series starts because you just never know, with five Tests to come.”
Bairstow does not yet know whether his centre-stage role will extend to the first Test in Brisbane, wich begins in little more than a week.
Bell added: “It’s disappointing, Matt is a key part of our success over the last few years and, obviously, we want him to recover as quickly as possible.”
Pietersen’s diversion to Melbourne for treatment and an updated appraisal of the injury which kept him out for three months earlier this year, and almost required surgery, appears to have had a good outcome.
Even so, none of the above adds up to the seamless preparation England had for their last campaign in Australia, which ended in a 3-1 series victory.