The victorious Australian T20 World Cup-winning team and the downcast England side arrived on the same flight in Brisbane from the UAE early on Tuesday ahead of the five-match Ashes series beginning at the Gabba here on December 8.
England’s multi-format player Jos Buttler — who was in blistering form in the T20 World Cup until New Zealand eliminated them in the semifinals — along with other members of the Ashes touring party had to wait for the Aaron Finch-led Australia to complete their T20 World Cup engagements before flying to Queensland together ahead of the Ashes.
In order to comply with the stringent Covid-19 protocols in Australia, Cricket Australia had arranged a charter flight for both the teams. The two side will now enter quarantine on the Gold Coast, reports cricket.com.au.
Besides Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood were the other England players who landed at Brisbane Airport and were quickly ushered out of the terminal.
“There is one bunch of cricketers who won’t be enjoying this (flight), watching on, and that’s England’s Ashes players,” former England captain Mike Atherton had told Sky Sports after Australia won the final. “That could be an interesting plane journey.”
In fact, ahead of Australia’s T20 World Cup final against New Zealand, Wood had conceded he would be nervous travelling alongside the Kangaroos, if they won the title, to Brisbane.
“I just can’t have them (Australia) win that game. It’s going to be unbearable,” Wood had told the BBC ahed of the summit clash.
“You can look them in the eye and say congratulations to them but when you are about to head off to an Ashes series against them, the last thing you want is them feeling confident and waving a trophy around in your face before you’ve even got there,” Wood had said.
Earlier, on November 6, the England Test players including all-rounder Ben Stokes, Rory Burns and Stuart Broad, who were not part of the T20 World Cup campaign, had arrived in Queensland and gone into quarantine.
