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00:00Yeah, I think this is such an important series for us. I think just the Ashes in general
00:12is such a big series. It's pretty much just behind a World Cup for us in my opinion. So
00:19I think, yeah, to be able to get the support that I think is deserved for both teams. I
00:24think we've been so successful over the last five, six years and it's probably one part
00:29of our game which we've been a little bit disappointed with is not seeing as many people
00:33as we would have liked, obviously, to have the T20 World Cup four or five years ago now
00:39and to pretty much sell out the MCG. And then for COVID to hit, it kind of put a dampener
00:43on what Australian cricket, I guess the path that it was going. But fingers crossed after
00:49a pretty successful men's test series, people can kind of come and support our series as
00:55well because we're going up against our fiercest rivals and they just went against theirs.
00:58So yeah, hopefully going forward, we can see some amazing crowds come and watch us.
01:03In England in 2023, when the men's and women's Ashes went unfurling, it felt like we were
01:08making more Ashes cricket. There was always a no day without an Ashes game. This time
01:13it's a standalone Ashes. Do you see a benefit otherwise of doing it either way? Are you
01:18looking forward to it being a standalone Ashes in the summer?
01:21I think there's pros and cons for both, to be honest. It was such a great feeling playing
01:26in England last year. We had some amazing crowds over there and I think they were just
01:30supporting England cricket as a whole. And then to have both Ashes campaigns going at
01:35once was pretty cool to be over there playing at the same time as our Australian men as
01:40well. So that was probably the pro when they did it really well, they marketed it really
01:44well and there was some fantastic crowds that came through the gates. But I think in saying
01:49that, having a standalone and the focus solely being on our team, I think that's the major
01:55benefit for us. Obviously the men have just had their limelight and hopefully we can kind
01:59of come off the back of theirs and have a really successful summer.
02:03Yourself and Tammy were the stars of the 2023 Test match. In future years, would you like
02:09to see more Tests added to this Ashes series or are you happy with how the format is with
02:12one of them?
02:13Yeah, that's a bit of a hot topic at the moment. I think obviously everyone's going to have
02:17their own individual point of view on that. But I think just purely workload, it would
02:22be quite tough just with how busy our summers are. But personally I would love to see 3-3-3.
02:29It's obviously going to make the tours a lot longer. I'm not sure where you're going to
02:33fit it in, in that time frame knowing that we obviously have to play overseas competitions
02:38as well. So it would be interesting to see where over the next four to five years kind
02:42of where that gets to. But I know personally I would love to play more Test cricket against
02:47England. Playing the one Test kind of feels like a bit of a novelty sometimes. So I guess
02:52being able to kind of fight out more of a Test championship. We obviously have some
02:56really good white ball games against England and other nations around the world. But I
03:00think the way that our two teams match up, I think it would be a really cool Test series
03:05to see who would come out on top for that. But I don't think that's probably going to
03:09change anytime soon.
03:17Far away when you're ready guys.
03:20Tammy, welcome. How's the jet lag? How are you feeling ahead of the series?
03:24Yeah, I've struggled with the jet lag a little bit actually. I was still awake at 4am this
03:28morning. But yeah, got a good few days to sort that out. But yeah, good to be over here
03:33in Australia and avoiding the snow back home.
03:35I think this is your third Ashes Tour of Australia. Does it feel like the strongest England squad
03:40that you've come down with?
03:41Yeah, I certainly think so. I think we've got so much talent in the squad now and actually
03:46we've got kind of 18, 19 players involved and each format's got a different squad. It
03:51just shows the kind of talent that's around in England at the moment. And yeah, certainly
03:55brought a very strong squad with a couple of people coming back from injury like Freya
03:58Kemp and Danny Gibson fully fit. I think it's great to have everyone fit and firing, ready
04:04to go.
04:05What was the feeling at the end of the 2020 pre-series with it tied 8-0 and you could
04:10be finishing the stronger side? Did it feel like you'd just let them run a little bit
04:14late or did you really let them after 1-0?
04:17I think both on and off the field, it was just an incredible series. And to come back
04:21from pretty much having to win every single game to draw the series, I think we were really
04:26proud of ourselves. Probably not elated and feeling like we'd won anything. Obviously
04:31the trophy came back here to Australia, so I don't think you can feel like you'd won
04:34something. But I think we certainly felt like we put a statement out there that we can go
04:39toe-to-toe with Australia and really compete. And also when our back's against the wall
04:43that we can show a lot of character and come through and play some really good cricket
04:48against the world's best. So we were pretty drained emotionally if we're honest. I think
04:54it was an incredible series and particularly the way it captivated the British public.