mvaughan

This is perhaps the most 'English' of the Australian wickets and that could provide Andrew Strauss with a superb chance of going 1-0 up in the Series.

This is an important toss to win and the best decision may well be to bowl first. Yes, I know, I know. Nasser's decision in 2002 came back to haunt him but that was eight years ago: conditions are different and the players on both sides have changed. If there's moisture in the pitch the ball will swing and if James Anderson gets first digs he'll be licking his lips at the prospect of bowling at Shane Watson and Simon Katich in his favourite conditions. But the man I really fancy to do the damage is Stuart Broad. He may not swing the ball quite as much as Jimmy but this is a hit-the-deck hard surface and he'll enjoy bowling here.

As for runs, I've said already this will be hard work for the top-order batsmen so it's best side to with someone in the middle order. Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood should both score a few here but the better option may be to go with Ian Bell (7.0) who's been in great form in the warm-up matches and looks more confident in his game than ever before.

Whereas it's easy to guess who will play for England, the same can't be said of Australia. At the time of writing we don't know if Michael Clarke will feature given he's struggling with an injury and there may yet be a place for the left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty. At 28 he's no spring chicken but England won't have seen much of him and the thinking in the Australian camp is that the English batsmen won't be having any sleepless nights over facing Nathan Hauritz and that Doherty could cause them more problems. A lot has been made of Kevin Pietersen's difficulties with left-arm spinners but Paul Collingwood has had problems of his own against them. If Doherty gets the nod and claims those two scalps his selection will be more than justified but we'll have to wait and see what Ponting and the selectors decide to do.

I've entered Betfair's Winning Runs Ashes game which involves picking the four players I think will score the most runs in the First Test and have gone with Ponting as captain, Bell, Collingwood and Hussey. Let's see if you can do better than me!

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