The Ashes diet update: What are England's cricketers eating in Australia?

Fitness in international cricket is paramount and therefore, nutrition and diet control tops the list of priorities for sports teams. England are in Australia for the five-match Test series of the Ashes, which begins on Friday (November 21) in Perth. While the cricketing aspect is understandably dominating headlines, an interesting food update about the England team has gone viral.

It's common for touring teams to have their own chef these days. In fact, there are players who have their individual chefs too. For England, their team chef on this tour of Australia is an Australian named Rob. Originally an Englishman who settled down in Australia ages ago, Rob has enough on his plate, literally and figuratively, to keep England's cricketers happy in terms of food intake.

Chicken and potatoes are often on the menu for the visiting players. Skipper Ben Stokes seem to be a huge fan of this as a video sees him tucking into the food. There are also a series of other options, especially when they need to tone down the volume of a single diet. Rob explains the general trend.

"We have a pasta or a carb, today we had gnocchi," says Rob in a video posted by ECB's official handle on X.

"We had potatoes, pumpkins and we also did a chicken dish, which was a Portugese chicken dish today. We also make it a point to have a fish dish daily."

It's not just the senior England men's side who are there in Australia at the moment. The A side, known as the England Lions, are also there in the country as part of ECB's shadow tour policy. Which means that Rob has a large number of stomachs to feed. He is aware of his challenges but isn't fazed by it.

"The number across both teams is 69, and then I feed the umpires, the scorers and the roomies. So I'm probably upto 80 a day. That would mean 1300-1400 meals. Bought 1200 plates when I first arrived, got 125 left."

"The banana bread, I'm going through four banana bread a day. Then there are yoghurts, I'm using Chobani Yoghurts, which I'm probably doing 70 or 80 minimum. Fruit, bananas, probably doing about 60 a day."

While he obviously enjoys his responsibilities as England's chef, Rob is also excited at the opportunity to make food for some of world cricket's biggest superstars. The excitement fuels his awareness levels and for such a physically demanding tour like the Ashes, diet planning is pivotal to ensure that the bodies last the entire series, at least in terms of the stomach.

"Seeing someone like Joe Root, you know, these guys are the rockstars of cricket, so you've got to be in awe of them. I'm out of my house by 6 am and I'm here at their hotel before 7 am. 12 hours is a normal day (of work), unfortunately I don't get a lot of time to watch the cricket"