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Australia have every chance of wrapping up the series and regaining the urn for the first time in seven years when they take on England in the third Ashes Test match at the WACA in Perth. Join us for live scores and commentary from 1.30pm AEDT.
Life for England has been difficult on this tour.
They were crushed in Brisbane, they lost one of their most experienced batsmen to a stress-related illness, then went down in the second game again and have had a matter of facing up to the opposition’s on-field verbals and off-field barbs.
And now they enter the third Test match at a venue where they have been poor all their lives, a ground where they can expect more of the same reason they went down in the first couple of Tests – pace and a lot of bounce.
First things first and both teams have a few things to decide around their selections.
Until about a day earlier, Australia looked good to go unchanged into the game. Now, there has been a bit of a talk of Ryan Harris having woken up sore on the eve of the game, which is why captain Michael Clarke delayed naming the Australian XI.
What adds bit of mystery to the selection is James Faulkner was hit on his hand by a net bowler, suffering a broken thumb.
So if Harris does not wake up fit and with Faulkner’s injury preventing him from adding to his one Test cap, we could well be looking at one of Doug Bollinger or Nathan Coulter-Nile getting a surprise call-up.
The rest of the Australian side should remain the same, with the high temperatures in Perth pushing them towards playing Nathan Lyon as their spinner, instead of a four-pronged pace bowling line-up alongside Shane Watson.
England have decisions to be made of their own. They had gone in with two spinners in Adelaide and now they may not even have one.
It will be a drastic move to enter the Test with four pace bowlers and one fraught with risk.
What happens if the WACA pitch does not play as it looks like it might – making and reading pitches isn’t an exact science anyway and we have had tracks which are predicted to play one way ending up doing quite the opposite.
What happens if, after the initial help for the pace bowlers, the pitch flattens out into a beautiful batting track?
What if the cracks come into the picture on the fourth and the fifth day and assist some form of spin bowling?
England might also want to ask questions, once they have decided whether or not to play a spinner, of their bowling attack.
With James Anderson struggling for form and Graeme Swann having not done the job that was expected out of him, will it make more sense to play Monty Panesar, keep Ben Stokes and add one of Tim Bresnan, Steven Finn or Boyd Rankin?
Or will Swann’s experience come through and allow the selectors to keep faith in his abilities?
And who will that third seamer be? Bresnan, if fit, could be the most likely option but there has been a talk in a few quarters of Rankin breaking into the line-up as well.
What about Stokes? Does he retain his place in the line-up or do the selectors pitchfork Gary Ballance in a bid to strengthen their batting instead?
The selection of Ballance and either Bresnan or Rankin would mean it would be their third successive change in their third seam bowling option and the number six batsman.
England’s selection issues are only a tip of the iceberg. How they bat against a rampaging Mitchell Johnson and co. will be a solution they would do well to find out and quickly at that.
WACA has been Johnson’s adopted home and his performance at this venue si almost second to none, having picked up 36 wickets at 19.66.
The steep bounce from good length added to his high speeds will make life difficult for the English batsmen but, as was on display in the second dig in Adelaide, it’s odds on England to fight fire with fire by going for the pull, hook and the cut.
Except they do not want to do what Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad did in the second innings. It was very early in the day for the both to attempt the shots they did and they paid the ultimate price for it.
While aggression will be the only way out for the tourists, getting the eye in will be of grave importance before they can start attacking. So England will be choosy about their shots.
It’s difficult to see how England can make a comeback from the situation they find themselves in but if they do get their selection and shot-making right, it could make for a perfect Test match for the neutral.
Join us for the opening day on Friday and you can follow the live score of this third Ashes Test between Australia and England from 1.30pm AEST and post your comments below.
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