The situation is complicated further by the necessity to complete a 10-day hard quarantine in New Zealand, which has led to the Ashes schedule change
Lisa Keightley has admitted that she faces a juggling act as England head coach if her side are to come through their Women's Ashes campaign and arrive in New Zealand for the World Cup in the best shape possible.
Preparation for the series – which England haven't won since 2014 – has already been significantly hampered by the pandemic and was described by captain Heather Knight as "pretty comical", with the schedule altered less than a fortnight ago and restrictions in Australia changing while the tourists were en route in mid-air.
Since then, a member of support staff has tested positive for Covid and is having to remain in Canberra while the rest of the group – all of whom recorded negative tests on Monday – are flying to Adelaide ahead of the T20 leg of the series.
Having focused predominantly on red-ball cricket during a practice camp in Oman, at a time when they were still expecting the multiformat contest to begin with a one-off Test, England have had to change tack to prepare themselves for the shortest format. Subsequently, in two warmup games against England A, who are touring at the same time, Knight's side was beaten twice on the same day.
"There's a lot of parts to the jigsaw of this trip," said Keightley. "We've got a selection meeting coming up tonight and before the first game where we've got to make some big decisions, which is great, ones we won't shy away from.
"Yes, we'll be thinking about the World Cup throughout this Ashes, and I think Australia will be too. Yes, we'll be concerned that we don't get injuries and we've got our full squads to select from, so that will be on the forefront of our minds."
Sophie Ecclestone took seven wickets in a T20 warmup against England A (Image credit: ECB)
The situation is complicated further by the need to complete a 10-day hard quarantine in New Zealand – a turn of events that led to the series' start date being dragged forward by a week. Indeed, players risk being shut out of the tournament, where England will be looking to retain their crown, if they contract the virus in the final week of the series and are unable to board the flight.
"You don't want a key player to have an injury because they can't be treated throughout that phase of that 10 days," Keightley explained, "so there's a lot of things and sometimes we've just got to wait and see how it's all panning out.
"Perfect world, they're all fit by the end, and we can select our best team for every game.
"Being a coach at this time, there are so many moving parts. It's unbelievable. We want players when we get to New Zealand not flagging. We've got to work out somehow to make sure they're there and they're fresh."
Speaking last week, Knight acknowledged that some rotation was likely.
"We'll try to get the best team that we possibly can and the team that we think will be successful and give us the best chance," she said. "But the schedule is very intense.
"We've also prepared for that, and a lot of the rotation in the summer was to try and create a squad where players have experience and if players have an injury or we feel like someone needs a game off, then those players can come in.
"So, we've had a little bit of planning for this scenario, but we're hopeful we can have our best side as much as we possibly can."