England return to Perth as white-ball tour starts amid renewed focus on sandpaper saga

England returned to Perth on Friday for the start of a white-ball tour, with three one-day internationals beginning in the city before a five-match Twenty20 series follows.

Usman Khawaja's freshly published autobiography Sabr — and the 22 pages it devotes to the 2018 sandpaper scandal — have dominated Australian coverage, leaving the tourists further down the news agenda.

The ground where England's Ashes hopes were ended by Travis Head in a two-day defeat at Optus Stadium last year is again the backdrop, but the mood around this visit is markedly different; the programme here is limited to three one-day internationals followed by five Twenty20s and Brendon McCullum remains head coach for limited-overs cricket.

Local media have not revived last year's fervour — the West Australian once labelled Ben Stokes a "Cocky Complainer" and Joe Root "Average Joe" — and Jofra Archer's mention on a back page about the "Poms' daunting Perth task" registered without much follow-up inside.

England's tour has been further sidelined by the Khawaja revelations, a situation compounded on Wednesday when the hosts put Joe Root up for media duties; Root is set to play his 200th ODI this week and was asked about the 2017-18 Ashes tour he captained.

Asked directly about that tour, Root said, "I don't want to speculate," and later added, "I can only speak from my own experiences," said Root, with a shrug; the article notes he is adept at "playing the straightest of straight bats."

England's immediate priorities are pragmatic: to further the 50-over education of a largely inexperienced side ahead of next year's World Cup and to recover form after a poor tri-series campaign in Pakistan. The tourists have prepared with a proper tour match at the Waca and a fuller backroom staff than a year ago, with Kevin Pietersen among a raft of coaches and two "dog-stick" specialists hired from Kolkata Knight Riders.

Cricket Australia has ruled out reopening the original investigation, saying it looked rushed eight years ago and has since been confirmed as hugely flawed, even as reaction to Khawaja's book has produced some nasty and misplaced backlash and the suggestion that the book is just a cash grab. Khawaja's account, the piece says, has filled gaps in the original story and exposed others, and there remains an appetite for further detail — "not least for David Warner, it seems, among the trio slapped with absurdly long bans."

There is public interest in hearing from Test captain Pat Cummins, despite Cummins and quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood being rested for this series (the article attributes that to the "sardine tin" schedule). Starc has already spoken this week, doubling down on the joint statement the bowlers issued in 2021, while Khawaja's allegation that sandpaper was used earlier on that tour and his awkward, evasive appearance on ABC's 7.30 programme — where he was "grilled like a politician" and named names on air that he had not included in print — continue to complicate the narrative. Root's restrained media approach was described as wise, and while his lack of a Test century on Australian soil was a talking point before last year's Ashes until he finally achieved one, the article notes no equivalent question has been raised about the fact he is yet to register a one-day century.

England begin the series with the three one-day internationals in Perth starting on Friday, before the five Twenty20 matches that complete the white-ball tour.