Michael Vaughan: 'Amateurish' if England don't play PM's XI fixture

England are unlikely to send any of the players involved in their eight-wicket thrashing in Perth to Canberra for next week's pink-ball tour match, a decision which former captain Michael Vaughan has described as "amateurish".

The speed of Australia's win in a chaotic first Ashes Test has left England with 11 days before the start of the second, day-night Test in Brisbane on December 4. There is a two-day, pink-ball match scheduled between a Prime Minister's XI and an England XI on November 29, but England Lions have long been scheduled to fulfil that fixture rather than the main touring party.

Brendon McCullum, England's head coach, said after the first Test that England would consider sending some players to Canberra. "I haven't even thought about it just yet, to be honest, because I planned on us being a little bit longer than two days," he told the BBC's Test Match Special. "We'll let the dust settle tonight and then we'll have a good think about it tomorrow."

But Ben Stokes, their captain, suggested that England will stick to their guns and head straight to Brisbane on November 26 to prepare for the second Test at the Gabba. "That's how it was done a long time ago," he replied, when asked if his side should look to play another competitive match in the aftermath of their heavy defeat.

"We prepare incredibly well," Stokes said. "We work incredibly hard every single day that we get the opportunity to work on our game, and that's what we'll keep on doing because we believe and we trust in our process.

"If the results don't go the way in our favour, that's not going to differ from that (sic) because, hand on heart, we know that we put every little bit or ounce of ourselves into our training, and we know and believe that this is the best way for this team to operate."

Alastair Cook, England's leading run-scorer in their most recent series win in Australia in 2010-11, urged them to reconsider. "In this situation, I would want to go and play in the pink-ball game against the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra, not just leave it to the Lions players," he wrote in his Sunday Times column.

"It can be an uncomfortable decision as you are opening yourself up to failing again, but putting yourself under pressure can have long-term benefits. However much you practise in the nets, you cannot replicate the feeling of time in the middle."

Vaughan, the top-scorer in the 2002-03 Ashes, went even harder, suggesting that England should go into the tour match at full strength - including fielding the fast bowlers that played in Perth. "It's amateurish if they don't go and play now," he said. "What harm is playing two days of cricket with a pink ball under lights?

"They've played two days of cricket. They've been out in the field for, what, 70 [67.3] overs? Look, they're professional cricketers. I can't be so old-school to suggest that by playing cricket, you might get a little bit better… My method would be, you've got a pink-ball, two-day game: you go and grab it, go and take it. Play those two days, and make sure that you're giving yourself the best chance.

"It's not being old-school to suggest that a pink ball is different to a red ball. Playing under the lights is different. Australia have won pretty much every pink-ball game in Australia: they've lost once. I'm not too old-school to suggest that they should play in that game… I'd like to know why they wouldn't."

England released three unused members of their Test squad - Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks and Matthew Potts - to play for the Lions in their ongoing tour match against a Cricket Australia XI at Lilac Hill from the second day of the first Test, and may take a similar approach for the PM's XI fixture.

The PM's XI will be captained by Peter Handscomb and features three other players with Test match experience in top-order batters Sam Konstas and Nathan McSweeney, and veteran seamer Peter Siddle.