Captain Ben Stokes brushed off concerns about England's Ashes preparations on Wednesday, saying there was no way the squad could prepare in the same way touring teams of the past had, given the demands of the modern game.

England great Ian Botham raised questions on Tuesday about the preparations for the opening test, which amount to a few days' squad training followed by an internal match in Perth before the series opener begins in the same city on November 21.

"I don't really know what we're supposed to do, to be honest," Stokes told reporters at Lilac Hill Park, where the internal match will begin on Thursday.

"The schedule is pretty jam packed to be able to sort of prepare how teams probably would have 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago, I think there's a lot of factors that have changed over

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