Ashley Giles confident of hosting Australia: Australia’s tour of England is likely to be of great importance for England.
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Ashley Giles, former England spinner and managing director for Men’s cricket, has expressed confidence with respect to Australia touring England in September for three ODIs and as many T20Is.
“We had a really good conference call with them last week. Australia have been one of our strongest partners for years and it continues that way. It would be great to have them here,” Giles was quoted as saying by ESPNcrincinfo.
England, who are all set to resume international cricket post the COVID-19 outbreak by hosting West Indies next month, are also scheduled to host Pakistan for three Tests and as many T20Is.
However, numerous Pakistani players testing positive for COVID-19 yesterday have cast doubts on the tour going ahead. While Giles ruled out any contingency plan in case Pakistan fail to arrive, he ensured that the English Cricket Board are working hard to ensure Australian players’ safety in England.
Ashley Giles confident of hosting Australia in September
It was only yesterday that there were reports of ECB planning an extravagant COVID-19 bubble for Australian players. Giles also admitted that the Australians are bound to be nervous considering the situation around the globe.
“Clearly if you were an Australian cricketer or member of staff out looking in at the moment, there would be some nervousness. But we are doing everything to allay as many of those fears as we possibly can to get them to the country,” Giles said.
If murmurs are to be believed, England are planning to host Australia for Test matches provided the Pakistan series doesn’t go ahead as planned. With the arch-rivals playing an Ashes series less than a year ago in England, the same is expected to allure lot of discussion.
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“Again September is a long way away right now and a lot could change in that time. But are we confident? Yes, quietly confident. But there’s a lot of water to pass under the bridge yet,” Giles added.
