England bid for early Christmas present

Match Facts

December 16-20, Perth
Start time 10:30 (02:30 GMT)

The Big Picture

All both teams want for Christmas is a win, but Australia would settle for a draw as a way of stopping the damage from an opponent showing few weaknesses. England lead the five-match contest 1-0 and will retain the Ashes with a victory, which is the most likely result on the form of the opening two encounters. England have never secured the urn before Christmas in their 133-year history of visits Down Under, and they may never have a better chance.

The series is only 10 days old but already it has taken a toll on both sides. Stuart Broad has been ruled out with a stomach tear and will spend his week in the Test Match Special commentary box instead of the dressing room. Simon Katich's heel problem has forced him out of the side and Australia have called for the type of wholesale changes England teams were mocked for making between 1989 and 2002-03. It's young talent time for the hosts, with Steven Smith (21), Phillip Hughes (22) and Michael Beer (26) coming in, and Mitchell Johnson in favour again after a week spent in the WACA nets.

Apart from which fast bowler to pick to replace Broad, England's main worry is their recent history of giving away hard-won series leads. They allowed Australia to level the 2009 Ashes after four games - but recovered to take the trophy - and also drew in South Africa after earning an early advantage. Australia are praying for more generosity this time.

Form guide

(most recent first)

Australia LDLLL
England WDWLW

Watch out for...

Mitchell Johnson is back. That would have been a scary line once, but over the past two years he has become a man of mystery. Dropped for the first time in his Test career after going wicket-less in Brisbane, Johnson has trained his way back after an intense week working with Troy Cooley, the bowling coach. The WACA is a great venue for Johnson, who has 21 wickets in three Tests, including a career-best match haul of 11 for 159. Australia need that version of Johnson in this fixture, not the ineffective model that appeared at the Gabba.

The new dad James Anderson has been to Lancashire and back over the past week to be at the birth of his second child. Over the next five days he will have to battle jet-lag and an Australia batting line-up that is determined not to be overwhelmed by England's remodelled attack. Anderson's control and swing will be vital, especially when he's running into the breeze of the Fremantle Doctor. He was dropped for the Perth Test on the previous tour, but is such a better bowler than he was four years ago..

Team news

Australia's big question surrounds whether to play Peter Siddle, the bowler who started the series with six wickets on the opening day in Brisbane. Siddle hasn't claimed a victim in Australia's past two innings and Ryan Harris jumped ahead of him in Adelaide. If both Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus, the in-to-the-wind man, come back in, then Siddle will miss out.

Australia (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Phillip Hughes, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Steven Smith, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Michael Beer, 10 Ryan Harris, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus.

Broad's replacement has come down to a two-man race between Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan. Tremlett offers extra bounce with his height while the powerful Bresnan provides greater nous on flat pitches. Whoever gets the nod will have a crucial role to play alongside Anderson, Steven Finn and Graeme Swann.

England (probable) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Graeme Swann, 9 James Anderson, 10 Chris Tremlett, 11 Steven Finn.

Pitch and conditions

Perth is always talked up as a fast man's favourite but over the past decade it has disappointed. Every year there is excited chatter from the locals that this time it will recapture its past glories. Maybe it will really happen this time. The pitch is expected to start with a tinge of green, but the cracking late in the match is expected to be a far greater concern to the batsmen than early seam movement. Sunny conditions are forecast throughout the game, with maximum temperatures above 30C.

Stats and trivia

• England have won only one of 11 Tests at the WACA, with that victory coming in the Packer-depleted era of 1978-79
• Australia have succeeded in 21 of 39 games here, with only nine losses. Five of those were against West Indies.
• Ricky Ponting is the leading the run-scorer in Tests at the WACA with 933, two more than Allan Border. David Gower is the best of the overseas players with 471 in five matches
• If Alastair Cook is wanting to add the highest score at the WACA to his Brisbane ground record, he must beat Matthew Hayden's 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003-04
Quotes
"I feel like it's part of my job as a bowler and I see myself as the leader of the attack here, so it's important I think about what went right for us in the last two games and what we can improve on for this game." James Anderson had plenty time to ponder his game during 48 hours of flying in the past week "Being a short opening batsman, [the bowlers] like it up around your ears and face as much as they can. Often it's not the short balls that get you out, it's the follow-up balls." Phillip Hughes is ready to have his mettle tested against the short ball

From Cricinfo.com

Ponting backs Johnson's WACA record

Australia's fast bowlers have gathered in Perth, uncertain of who will be carrying the drinks when the third Test begins on Thursday. The captain Ricky Ponting has said there will be strong competition between the fast men, with Mitchell Johnson back in the mix after being dropped along with Ben Hilfenhaus for the Adelaide Test.

Mitchell Johnson is back in the mix despite his disappointing efforts at the Gabba © Getty Images

Mitchell Johnson is back in the mix despite his disappointing efforts at the Gabba © Getty Images

Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris have all been named in Australia's 12-man squad, and although there is a chance that all four could play, Ponting always prefers to have a specialist spinner on hand. If that means Michael Beer plays alongside the allrounder Steven Smith, one of the pace bowlers must sit out.

The early indications are that it won't be Johnson, who is viewed as the most dangerous man in the attack, although his recent form has been poor. Johnson has a strong record at the WACA, where he has taken at least five wickets in all three of his Tests, and it was the venue of one of his greatest spells of bowling, when he took 8 for 61 against South Africa in 2008-09.

"He's taken an eight-for here so he has to come back into the reckoning considering it's a game we have to win," Ponting told the Australian. "I've always used him as a strike bowler but unfortunately he wasn't able to deliver in Brisbane. He's had a chance to get away and sort things out and he has worked exceptionally hard in Adelaide. Hopefully we'll see some good stuff from him in Perth this week."

Johnson was working with the bowling coach Troy Cooley in the nets at the Adelaide Oval while his team-mates were on their way to an innings defeat, and Ponting was pleased with his progress. He was also happy with the efforts of Siddle, who took a hat-trick on the opening day of the series but hasn't picked up a wicket since that first innings at the Gabba.

"Sids had none-for in Adelaide but I think he bowled a lot better than that," Ponting said. "I thought he got better as the game went on and never got any results to show for it. I'm very comfortable with the way he's going and I was very impressed with (Ryan) Harris. To come back into the side and bowl that way was really exciting. He's someone who will bowl well at the WACA."

The Australians have already used five different fast men - Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Siddle, Ryan Harris and Doug Bollinger - in the two Tests, and the full-time selector Greg Chappell said there weren't a lot of options around the country. Trent Copeland and Mark Cameron have been impressive in the Sheffield Shield this season, while Peter George is also bowling well, having made his Test debut in India in October, but Chappell believed the proven men were the way to go in a crucial Ashes Test.

"Well, there are not a lot of options," Chappell said in an interview with his brother Ian in Brisbane's Sunday Mail. "Mitch was, up until very recently, our best wicket-taker and the one most likely to win a Test or to help us get 20 wickets. If we can get him bowling well, he's still the most dangerous bowler we have."

The players gathered on Sunday in Perth, where Phillip Hughes and Michael Clarke had arrived early to spend extra time working with the batting coach Justin Langer. The third Test is not expected to be easy for the batsmen, with word from the WACA curator Cameron Sutherland that the game could be over in four days.

"We're going to aim for a fair bit of grass on top this year," Sutherland told Perth's Sunday Times. "Certainly we want a result and we're confident that we'll have a pitch that will produce a result."

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Hughes 'blown away' by Beer shout

Merv Hughes was a selector until two months ago, but even he was caught off guard by Michael Beer's call-up for this week's Perth Test. The inclusion of the left-arm spinner Beer, who played the first of his five first-class games in October, was a major surprise given the delicate state of the series, which England leads 1-0.

"I must admit I was a little bit blown away by it," Hughes told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Having been in the selection system for the last five years you know the process that they watch the games and obviously he's impressed the selectors at the games he's played this year. I actually didn't hear the team. Someone said a left-armer from WA had been picked, I actually thought it might have been Aaron Heal."



Michael Beer wasn't  on the radar of former selector  Merv Hughes © Getty Images

Michael Beer wasn't
 on the radar of
former selector
 Merv Hughes
© Getty Images



The chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, said of the decision that having a left-arm orthodox spinner would be a good option for Australia in the future. The first one they tried, Xavier Doherty, was axed after two Tests, and Steve O'Keefe, who played in the Australia A match against England in November was surprisingly overlooked.

"Three weeks ago when he wasn't picked for the Australian A team they couldn't have been thinking about him then because they played [Steve] Smith and O'Keefe in that game," Hughes said. "Michael Beer's a huge surprise. I would have thought there would have been a couple of players in front of him, but I haven't seen games this year."

Beer moved to Western Australia from Melbourne during the 2010 off-season and Hughes said during his time as a selector he had not seen him play. However, despite being surprised by the call-up, Hughes said he had no reason to think Beer would not be up to the task if he plays at the WACA.

"Since Adelaide everyone's been crying out for change and when they make a change everyone sits back and asks why," Hughes said. "We can't cry out for change then question why it's been done. Give the kid a chance, I hope he goes really well. I'm surprised but I'm also excited for him."

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Collingwood shines on dreary day

Paul Collingwood enlivened an insufferably dull day of cricket with three wickets in five overs, before Andrew Strauss scalped the first-innings centurion, Michael Hill, for 4 with his rarely seen left-arm chinaman bowling, as England's pace bowlers aborted their attempts to impress the selectors ahead of the Perth Test, and left Monty Panesar and the declaration bowlers to get through their day's work on a dreadfully slow pitch.

By the close, Victoria had reached 2 for 278 in their second innings, a lead of 310 following England's lunchtime declaration on 2 for 184. With Chris Tremlett, Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan thwarted by the conditions, the only wicket to fall in the afternoon session was Aaron Finch, who set Victoria's tempo with 45 from 74 balls, before miscuing a lofted drive at Panesar and holing out to mid-off.

Thereafter, England were held up by a pair of debutants, the 20-year-old Ryan Carters, who made 68, and the 18-year-old Alex Keath, who turned his back on an AFL contract with Gold Coast to concentrate on a career in cricket. He started uncertainly as Bresnan and Shahzad probed his defences with a hint of reverse swing, but grew in confidence as the afternoon wore on and the sting went out of England's efforts.

It was left to Collingwood's offcutters to make England's long-awaited breakthrough, as Carters stepped across his stumps to be bowled behind his legs, and two overs later he added a second courtesy of a smart one-handed catch by Alastair Cook at silly mid-off, as Matthew Wade drove airily back down the ground. Cook had been off the field apparently nursing a sore back, but his mobility seemed not in the slightest bit impaired.

Panesar, who had bowled tidily but without assistance from the pitch, then added a second as John Hastings swung across the line and top-edged a sweep to Collingwood, running round from slip, who then denied Keath a fifty on debut with a slow, ballooning bouncer that was scuffed through to the keeper. The session then degenerated into farce with the introduction of Strauss and Eoin Morgan, who has yet to bat on this tour, but has now bowled three overs for 37.




Ian Bell made another half-century before England's early declaration © Getty Images

Ian Bell made another half-century before England's early declaration © Getty Images

 

The highlight of England's day, however, was Strauss's third first-class victim, as Hill was adjudged lbw, a touch unluckily it appeared, to a back-of-the-hand delivery that appeared to pitch outside the line of leg stump. Either way, he joined elite company, with Kevin Pietersen and Stephen Fleming the only two other batsmen to succumb to his assortment of long-hops. It was left to Jayde Herrick and Clint McKay to climb into the offerings, with Strauss conceding 51 runs in four overs, and McKay posting 58 not out, his highest first-class score.

"We want to make a competitive game tomorrow, so in order for that to happen we had to allow Victoria to get enough runs to make it competitive tomorrow," explained Ian Bell at the close of play. "That was really the idea behind it."

In the morning session, England's batsmen continued where they had left off in the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests, with Strauss making a boundary-laden 66, and Bell unbeaten at lunch on 60, his fifth consecutive fifty-plus score of the tour.

Strauss, who resumed on 17 not out, offered a chance on 40 when he snicked Herrick to Cameron White at first slip, who shelled a regulation catch, but was otherwise watertight as he brought up his fifty from 79 balls with a sweep off the left-arm spinner Jon Holland. It was Holland who ended his stay via a chip to midwicket.

By that stage, however, Bell was fully into his stride, and he posted his fifty with a sweetly timed cover drive off Hastings. Collingwood, whose opportunities on the tour to date have been limited, cracked Holland for a big six into the Members' stand to go to the interval on 29 not out, as England moved to within 32 runs of Victoria's first-innings 2 for 216 before declaring.

Despite the unhelpful nature of the wicket, Bell reckoned that England would be more than content with the work-out that their bowlers had got, especially with the prospect of a livelier surface at the WACA next week.

"It's always nice to get a couple of wickets, but I think it's been a hard wicket for the bowlers," said Bell. "Let's be fair, it's so slow out there, but they've toiled away and it's reverse swung, which is good to see because those sorts of skills which might come in at some point at the WACA.

"They've worked hard, and to be honest with you, it's great going into Perth that all three of them had a good work-out in batting friendly conditions. It's much better that than a green seamer where they've all taken five-for and bowled a couple of good balls but a couple of bad balls as well. They've generally gone at two an over all game and that's exactly what we want going into a Test match."

Andrew Miller is UK editor of Cricinfo.

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