da dobrowin： Brett Lee and Stuart Clark will have to wait until the first two tour games to secure their spots in the bowling pecking order for the Ashes
da supremo： Peter English26-May-2009Brett Lee and Stuart Clark will have to wait until the first two tour gamesto secure their spots in the bowling pecking order for the Ashes. Both menare coming back after lengthy injuries and must leapfrog a couple of theincumbents to win places in the opening Test of the series in Cardiff on July8.Mitchell Johnson grew into the attack leader in Lee’s absence and was backedup by Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus, who are both expected to suit Englishconditions, during the strong 2-1 victory in South Africa. “Where Stuart andBrett are in the pecking order, we don’t know at the moment,” the captainRicky Ponting said. “Lee is a bit of an unknown [after ankle surgery]. Thefirst two games before the first Test will tell us.”Australia are already talking about playing more than 11 in the lead-upmatches in Hove and Worcester to give all five of their frontline weapons achance to impress, as well as testing the fitness of the allrounder ShaneWatson. In 2005 there was only one first-class affair after the one-dayseries and the lack of lead-up time led to Jason Gillespie and MichaelKasprowicz struggling without the extra work.Another factor both Ponting and Michael Clarke spoke of during the team campon the Sunshine Coast was the time it takes for visiting players to get usedto the Duke balls used in England. “Our guys will get a great opportunity touse their [England’s] cricket ball for a few weeks leading into the firstTest,” Ponting said. “That was probably what brought us undone last time,their ability to use their ball well and we were a little off the boil withit.”Reverse-swing was one of England’s major strengths when they endedAustralia’s 16-year hold on the urn, but Clarke was confident the currentbatsmen would be able to negotiate the tricks this time. “Our knowledge,certainly of the guys who have been there before, is a little bit moreeducated than what it was four years ago,” he said. “Generally the differencewith the English ball and the Kookaburra [which is used in Australia] is ourball swings from the start.”It doesn’t swing as early in England, then it starts to swing a bit later.Reverse-swing is as big a part as natural swing over there. It sounds likethey are having a pretty good summer with weather, that being the case itwill probably be pretty dry and we’ll have to combat reverse-swing as well.”Australia could not get the ball moving as easily as England’s bowlers andthat trend was repeated in India last year despite the acquisition of TroyCooley, the bowling coach behind the 2005 success. Tim Nielsen, the currentcoach, believes he has a complementary attack that can be relied on in allconditions.
