Ellyse Perry wishes the upcoming women's Ashes series would feature more than one Test match, but concedes there has to be an emphasis on the shorter forms of the game as those are the ones which have sparked recent growth in women's cricket.
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The Australians will play one Test, three one-dayers and three Twenty20 internationals on the tour, which starts on July 21.
"I do wish there was more than one Test," said Perry, who was one of 15 players named earlier this month in the Australian squad.
"Having grown up watching a lot of Test cricket, a lot of Ashes series and really just loving playing, it would be great to play a few more Tests. It's an interesting one. I think the current format of the Ashes is good in that it places importance on all forms of the game. I think, having said that, in a perfect world we'd probably play more than one Test. There might be three Tests, three one-dayers and three Twenty20s. That might be possible in the future."
Perry said, however, the emphasis on shorter formats made sense as they had been the drivers for the development of the women's game.
"I think the last five or six years there has been a really steady progression and a real sense of development in the game," she said.
"A lot of it is due to the fact that Cricket Australia has put a huge emphasis on growing the game and getting more females involved in cricket. It's a fantastic thing for us. I think also with T20, there are more opportunities like playing double headers with the men's matches and being able to mirror competitions like the Big Bash."
In February, Cricket Australia revealed proposals to stage a Women's Big Bash League featuring franchises aligned with the current men's competition. Last month, the governing body announced a new pay system, which could see leading players' wages rise to $85,000 a year.
Perry would be among them, heading to England as a fast bowling spearhead in a team led by captain Meg Lanning and vice-captain Alex Blackwell.
Three new players in the side will be chasing a Test debut, batter Nicole Bolton and leg spinner Kristen Beams, from Victoria, and Queensland all-rounder Jess Jonassen.
Perry said a new coach, Matthew Mott, had invigorated the side, which had a "really great mix" of new and established players.
The Ashes will be decided by a points system in which each limited-overs match is worth two points and the Test is worth four points. It will be the third time the series will be decided by points. The Australians are yet to win under such a system.
"It's going to be a really tough series, especially playing over there," she said. "We're very balanced in terms of who's got the ascendancy. In the last couple of years we've had great success at World Cups. We hold both the T20 and one-day World Cup. But England held the Ashes in the last couple of tournaments that we've played. It's quite an even ledger I suppose. Obviously we'd love to win the Ashes to hold everything that there is at the moment."
