England turn down floodlit Canberra tune-up and stay together in Queensland

England have resisted calls to send senior players for a pink ball practice match ahead of the second Ashes Test, passing up the chance to spend more time in the middle.

A slipshod two-day defeat in the series opener at Perth left an 11-day gap in the tourists’ schedule before the day/night Test in Brisbane and opened up the option of using next weekend’s England Lions fixture in Canberra as a competitive tune-up for the first team.

Former captain Michael Vaughan said it would be “amateurish” not to send key men to the capital to experience a floodlit fixture against the Prime Minister’s XI and head coach Brendon McCullum suggested he would be mulling over the possibility.

However, the decision has been made to keep the first-choice team together in Queensland, with squad players Josh Tongue, Jacob Bethell and Matthew Potts the only ones making the trip to Manuka Oval.

Extra net sessions at the Gabba are on the agenda but their choice is sure to be met with criticism from those who feel England’s preparations for the tour have not been sufficiently robust. The touring team have made it clear they back their own methods and have little desire to recreate the packed itineraries of yesteryear.

Either way, it will be seen as a significant gamble considering twin batting collapses in the first Test and Australia’s superior familiarity with the vagaries of day/night cricket and the pink Kookaburra.

Meanwhile, Mark Wood has called for his side to “fight fire with fire” at the Gabba.

The 35-year-old is the first player to put his head above the parapet since Travis Head’s brutal century wrapped things up on the second evening, appearing on former team-mate Stuart Broad’s For the Love of Cricket podcast.

“We’ve been hit pretty hard in round one but we’ve got other rounds to try and throw some back,” he told Broad.

“Ultimately we have to stick together because it’s about the end goal, not this one game. There has to be a reflection of what went on, to understand the disappointment, but also know we did some good things. Can we take them into the other four games? This is not one, it’s one of five.

“Australia will have confidence from that win. I know it’s only one guy (Travis Head) who’s played particularly well but as a group that will give them a lift, winning that type of game. Their batters will be more confident – can one of them play an innings like that? So it’s up to us to fight fire with fire, come back in and try to knock them over again.”

Wood accepts his words will not soothe the disappointment of the thousands of English fans with unexpected time on their hands in Perth, as well as those watching with a wince from the United Kingdom, but he insists the squad share the pain.

“Emotions will be raw for everyone at home when you get close and start believing in the team and have that let down feeling,” he said.

“There’s nothing I can say on a podcast that will make people think, ‘oh they’ve solved it, I feel better now’. It’s going to hurt and it should hurt for a few days, the players feel that as well.”

England suffered their second chastening defeat in 48 hours as Andrew Flintoff’s Lions team were beaten by a Cricket Australia XI at Lilac Hill.

Like the Test team they were downed by eight wickets, with an opener striking a fourth-innings century. This time it was Josh Inglis who put the tourists to the sword, strengthening his chances of a recall for the second Test with 125 not out against an attack boasting five players with international experience, including senior squad members Matthew Potts and Will Jacks.