It seems to me Australia are preparing for the winter.

From Australia's perspective for the winter...Patto-Harris-Siddle would be my three bowlers with Faulkner instead of Starc. I'd drop Watson as he is proving a liability now. Faulkner will provide that balance required. No need for the myth Watson.

That way they can play the likes of Hughes, Khawaja, Smith etc... in one line-up instead of dropping them even though they perform better with the bat than Watson. Or have more potential.

You mean the merry go around will continue in Australia.. the top 6 of Australia is just not good enough. Its like changing seats on the titantic.

Id keep Watson for Australia. theres less chance of him being LBW on Australian wickets.
He can get forward even if the ball strikes him on the pad it will more than likely be going over the top of the stumps.
Id put him at 4 and put Clarke upto 3. behind Warner and Rodgers. dunno about 5 and 6. maybe Faulkner can bat 6.. just missing a number 5 now.

wow so they have actually weakened the batting - bad decision. I would have kept faith with Khawaja but quite honestly whoever they play i think they will get beat.
Seem to me to be panicking and trying all sorts of things out without trying to establish a good team going forward which makes things difficult. England were in the same position in the 80's

Australia are so un-glamorous, un-romantic, weak, mediocre, poor ,miserable team nowadays.
I feel for them really.

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What an epic battle this current england team vs australian team similar to their previous team would be?
This current Australian team can be beaten by current England lions team.

Growing up in the late nineties,I always regarded Australia as the mighty Sherlock holmes and England as watson.
Australia as Manchester United and england a mere Dundee(??)utd.
Australia as Roger Federer and England as Tomy Haas. Australia as the Mighty US army and England a mere Iraq.
But how time changes. Wow.
Cricket really is parallel to life itself.
Now Australia feels like Soviet Union just scattered to pieces.

Merv Hughes and the thoroughly likeable Chris Rogers on 5Live shortly

good morning, final ashes test of the summer coming up. Another bat first day..

There was me thinking the only thing bitter in Australia was the beer.

Darren Lehmann accuses Stuart Broad of "Blatant cheating".

"I hope he cries and goes home" Lehmann said.

are we still allowed to rip into Broad for not walking?

"It wasn't as clear-cut as everyone had thought, although I knew I'd hit it," he said.

Australia, Warne moaning for no reason- They should look at the bigger picture...
I hate this rubbish of "Spirit of cricket"- I couldn't care less about the spirit. He had a RIGHT to do what he did. Fack the rest. End of argument.

Simon Kerrigan and Chris Woakes to debut!!!!!!!!!!!! Woakes has his chance at last!

Cook
Root
Trott
Pieterson
Bell
Prior
Woakes
Broad
Swann
Kerringan
Anderson.

Is probably the 11..

i used to have respect for Darren Lehmann, him playing for Yorkshire and all, but quite honestly not any more. The Aussies are coming across as whiners now, not least because this has happened to US before (Clarke, anyone?) and we didn't create such a fuss. I personally think it may have happened because he (Lehmann) may be out of a job soon. Pathetic and like i say dissapointing

Seem like Andy flower read my argument on Bairstow(see the article "bairstow's unmerited selection" and finally saw the light.
Still, feel like one of Taylor or gary deserved a go.

Gary Balance? Not for Tests yet. He is an attacking limited overs players, who does have a good record, but people need to remember he has played some cricket in Zimbabwe's domestic scene too.

There are others who are ahead of him in the pecking order when it comes to Test cricket.

Who adot?

Ballance is on fire, he'll be on the winter tour for sure

Sure Broad is fired up.
Lehman will regret his words.

Hi guys, nice to see you all again

A bit surprised with Woakes' inclusion today, also thought Tremlett would play but conditions are great for batting so maybe two spinners is a good option to have.

Need early wickets here really, very good toss to win for Aus.

Ballance should and will get into the limited overs side. But, it depends in the Test scene, if Root stays at the top of the order then I can seriously see him playing a game in the winter. But Taylor gets ahead of Ballance of course, as does Stokes as a batsman IMO, but his bowling and what he provides is what England are looking for. But, if Root drops down then one of Carberry and Chopra will get ahead of him.

But I still think Bairstow is a pretty good player. Ballance has been scoring runs, but people fail to remember that Bairstow did the exact the same thing as keeper for England lions. People got hyped up and now he is gone.