Warner's left-field idea to help England's batting woes

Weeks of preparing on synthetic wickets could be England's panacea to their woes in Australia with their batters on track to hit a 131-year low.

At least that's the advice from David Warner for England's next trip to Australia in 2025-26, with the tourists now going more than 4000 days without a Test win in the country.

England returned to the nets on Wednesday for a lengthy session at the MCG, on what was meant to be day four of the Boxing Day Test.

There was at least some good news for the tourists, with all players again receiving negative PCR tests after their second nasal assessment in as many days. The six current cases are non-playing members of their camp.

Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad were among those bowling on Wednesday, after being left out of the Boxing Day Test.

And while much of the focus in the build-up to the third Vodafone Test was on England's length with the ball, what can't be overlooked in what looms as a brutal review is their horror record with the bat.

Their average of 18.75 per wicket is their worst of any series in any nation since the 1890 Ashes in England.

"From a batting point of view, the bounce is a big one," Warner, who averages 63.03 in Australia, said.

"Growing up here in Australia and playing on these wickets is different for how we would approach it compared to England. 

"I would probably suggest going on the synthos (synthetic wickets) and practising against the (extra) bounce, doing that in England. 

"You've always got to find ways to prepare and the only way you can prepare for bounce is on synthos in England."

Australia had a long run of planning for their efforts to retain the urn in England in 2019, including introducing Dukes balls for part of the Sheffield Shield.

Warner himself used polished concrete and synthetic wickets to train in Dubai last month, preferring them as he claimed player-of-the-tournament status in Australia's T20 World Cup win.

The Australian opener also indicated that bowlers could benefit from the preparation, after also hitting the wrong length and allowing Australia to leave easily in Brisbane and Adelaide.

"In England that back of a length is still hitting the stumps … if you bowl that length at the Gabba or Adelaide, you're not really hitting the stumps," Warner said. 

"You have to be brave enough to pitch the ball up here. 

"We feel as a batting unit when England pitch the ball up, we drive them down the ground … but you have to do that to create the chances, to create the bat-pad gap to create those nicks."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: Australia won by an innings and 14 runs

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena