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Forget David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc and Matthew Wade. Australia must show faith in Jackson Bird, Nathan Lyon, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Phil Hughes.
In the wake of a loss as humbling as Australia’s 347-run capitulation to England at Lords, the temptation is to overhaul the side, particularly its frail batting line-up.
However, in the absence of sound options, I would make just one forced change to the side – Lyon for Agar – while drafting in Bird for the injured Pattinson.
I should specify, this is not my ideal Australian team to tackle the Poms in the third Test – that would include Tasmania’s neat gloveman Tim Paine ahead of fumble-prone pair Brad Haddin and Matthew Wade.
But it is highly unrealistic to think the selectors will jettison vice-captain Haddin and parachute in a keeper who is not even in the Ashes squad.
Paine would undoubtedly enhance the Aussie side, which in recent times has been cruelled by Haddin’s woeful efforts keeping to the quicks and Wade’s equally inept performance to the spinners.
The 28-year-old is a tidy, uncomplicated gloveman and a far more combative batsman than the swashbuckling Haddin and Wade, having began his first-class career as an obdurate opening batsman.
Haddin, despite his sublime counterattacking innings in the first Test, has been a liability, costing Australia about 200 runs behind the stumps due to missed opportunities.
Joe Root would have been dismissed for eight instead of 180 at Lords had Haddin taken a regulation edge offered by the young Englishman early in his innings.
While Haddin does not deserve to play at Old Trafford, the pitches at that venue have been turning square this county season, which makes Wade an even greater gamble.
There have been suggestions Wade may take the field but as a batsman rather than a replacement for Haddin.
The Australian selectors have made some atrocious errors in recent times with similar stop-gap selections such as Moises Henriques and Glenn Maxwell in the Tests in India this year. But playing Wade as a batsman would supersede either of those blunders.
Considering the clumsiness of his keeping, perhaps Wade’s future at international level is as a specialist batsman.
But having never fulfilled that role at first-class level, it would be folly to conduct such an experiment at the expense of Khawaja, Smith and Hughes, who won their way into the squad purely on the back of their deeds with the blade.
The bigger threat to the positions of that trio will come from fickle former opener David Warner, who ensured he will be closely considered by the selectors after cracking a typically cavalier 193 against a strong South Africa A attack on Wednesday.
Most people have a black-and-white view on Warner. Some think he should be nowhere near the Test team, while others believe he is a match-winner and Australia’s best batsman after skipper Michael Clarke.
The latter camp is correct if such an assessment is based purely on statistics. The former camp is right if such an assessment is based solely on the traditional values of Test cricket, which demand a batsman place a high value on his wicket, and bat according to both the match situation and the needs of their side.
Warner is prodigiously gifted and has outperformed the likes of Shane Watson, Ed Cowan and Hughes since making his Test debut 19 months ago.
But he relinquished his position in the team by slugging Joe Root in a juvenile, alcohol-fuelled, late-night stoush in the lead up to Australia’s biggest Test series in years.
Handing him a reprieve immediately after his first innings of substance since would send a weak message to a side in desperate need of discipline and determination.
Hughes is manifestly the most vulnerable member of Australia’s top six because of his flawed approaches to combating both pace and spin bowling.
I have been critical of the young left hander and believe he should not even have been taken on this tour. But the only alternatives in the squad are Wade or Warner, either of whom would be unwise choices currently.
The darkhorse to steal Hughes’ spot is spinning all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who scored a belligerent 155 not out on the first day of the match against South Africa A.
Warner is often labelled a slogger, but as a first-class player Maxwell is arguably more deserving of such slander.
The Victorian debuted in India, scoring 90 runs from four digs. More damning than his statistics were his modes of dismissal: Caught at mid on attempting to heave Ravindra Jadeja to cow corner; trapped lbw by Ravi Ashwin after playing across the line trying to whip a straight ball through square leg; caught behind attempting to manufacture a cut shot from a Jadeja delivery on the stumps; bowled after playing all around an innocuous straight ball from Jadeja.
This is not the kind of batsmanship Australia requires, given that so far this series their bowlers have been the most consistent contributors of runs.
Mitchell Starc has proven his worth with the blade but remains a less dependable operator than Tasmanian Jackson Bird.
A tall, accurate out swing bowler, Bird is the Australian quick who bears most resemblance to Kiwi paceman Tim Southee, who confounded the Poms in their Test encounters in England this year. Southee collected 12 wickets at an average of 19 in those two Tests.
The success of the Kiwi pacemen against England was built on consistency and Bird is the thriftiest Australian quick. He would be a useful foil to the more attacking pair of Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle.
That pace trio should be partnered by sturdy spinner Nathan Lyon, who was unjustly dropped for the first Test as the selectors punted on precocious teen Ashton Agar.
The 19-year-old West Australian may well become a dominant Test player. But his time will come.
There is no need to rush a greenhorn who only made his first-class debut six months ago, particularly when Australia have a canny practitioner in Lyon as an alternative.
In the 25-year-old’s last Test outing against India at Delhi, he snared nine wickets and dismissed noted players of spin Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli in both innings.
Lyon is unlikely to run through England’s batting line-up in the same manner that Graeme Swann toyed with the Aussies at Lord’s.
But he offers greater control, experience and versatility than Agar, who for all his talent remains a one-dimensional tweaker.