Just around the corner now - Australia is expected to select Bailey as their no. 6 and Johnson is expected to be recalled.

Meanwhile, Bairstow goes through the back-door for an England selection as the reserve wicketkeeper for Prior and Carberry appears to be getting the nod as an opener while Root will go down into the middle order.

Tremlett in as the third bowler?

Official Australian squad: Chris Rogers, David Warner, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (capt), Steve Smith, George Bailey, Brad Haddin (wk, vice-capt), James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, Nathan Lyon.

I expect Faulkner to be 12th man. Strong team

We're doomed.

Aussies are looking much stronger than at the start of the last series. Still expecting an England win, but hopefully it should be a bit more of a contest this time around.

I hope Shane Watson gets back to match fitness in time for the first test

What do you Aussies think of Steve Smith? To me he doesn't seem to have much of a batting technique and his bowling is largely all over the place, but the Aussie media seems to like/rate him.

I think we're in for a hard time, unless things in the dressing-room have changed drastically in the last 5 months. My take on the Australian team:

Michael Clarke: His batting aside, not so great. He's only still doing this so history won't mark him as the captain who finished an Ashes failure. If Australia win this series he will retire immediately, mark my words. His back can't handle it any more. His big negative is his poor form as a captain after 6pm. He can't pull this team together in the dressing-room against what the selectors and cricket committee pull behind the scenes. And who the hell releases an Ashes diary of the previous series that occurred not four months ago with all his tactics and inner-most thoughts 2 weeks before the next series? Michael Clarke does. Brain-dead move.

Shane Watson: Clarke's biggest problem. They hate each other with a passion. He is poison in the dressing-room, and no matter his on-field talents, (which are now restircted to his batting and he only managed one decent score in the last series), they can't rise above his disrupting influence.

David Warner: Your grade A moron. A typical mouth breather. Will follow Watson to the end of the earth. Enough said. On a purple patch of form but this was based on a round-robin event with short boundaries and no real pressure. Will not be surprised if he implodes in the vast spaces of the MCG.

Chris Rogers: Will he or won't he? So much pressure now on players to immediately perform. Can't call this one.

Steve Smith: Seems to be above the dressing-room and selector shennanigans. I rate him as a player. The English don't. He's not facing me.

George Bailey: He's come off a phenomanal run of form in a pressure-cooker atmosphere but once again with very small boundaries. I don't know. I think this is his only shot, I'm pretty sure he thinks this too, that's a lot of pressure. Would like him to do a Mike Hussey but not sure if he can.

Brad Haddin: Rock solid. Thank god the selectors brought him back in.

Mitchell Johnson: If he can bowl with some control this time he'll make an impact in what will be his last ever test series for Australia.

Peter Siddle: Freakin Fabulous. He's above politics and into hard work. The best player in the team for me.

Ryan Harris: Another hard worker, deserves to be there, but ... just doesn't have that magic touch.

Nathan Lyon: He's the best that we can do at the moment and that's not saying very much. He will be severly handicapped by the rubbish wickets that Cricket Australia have implemented to their eternal shame.

James Faulkner: If he gets selected for the first test, and he doesn't perform, he's gone. And he knows it. And that's huge pressure. But pretty sure he'll be carrying the drinks.

I agree with most of this although I don't know how you can say Siddle is a better bowler than Harris. Siddle is a good honest toiler at best who will always give 100% but he is not a player who the opposition worry about. If it weren't for a dreadful run of injuries Harris would have been considered Australia's no 1 bowler for the couple of years. The issue has never been about his performance when he plays, it's about his ability to get on the park. When he plays he's a world class test bowler.

Bailey has a first class average of 38. I have no issue with his selection in the test team but it really says a lot about the depth and quality of Australian batting at the moment.

Mitchell Johnson is another stupid selection. If he bowls well he will improve the team slightly, if he bowls poorly he will lose the series for us on his own. It's a 50/50 proposition as to which way it goes.

& don't get me started as to why they thought it was a good idea to bring Haddin back.

I have no issue with Clarke's captaincy, he's prepared to take a risks and often makes the right moves. It seems his captaincy is being unfairly judged as a consequence of the appalling lack of talent in the team he had to lead. In terms of strategic moves (as opposed to leadership) I rate him ahead of Waugh and Ponting who were both overrated largely as a result of captaining one of the most talented teams of all time. I really disliked Clarke before he took on the captaincy but I don't think you can ask for much more than what he has delivered in terms of both his performance and his captaincy since taking over the job.

+ 1 - I would be far happier facing Siddle than Harris.

Waugh shouldn't be regarded as being overrated in his captaincy...Ponting on the other hand was the most defensive captain up until Clarke but in saying that Clarke is still prepared to take a few risks with fielding and bowling options.

Meh, I disagree. When he bowls well (which isn't often enough I agree) he can be pretty unplayable, on his bad day he's terrible. Thing is Australia are decent underdogs going in, so in that situation embracing variance is the right play. Hope he can produce an unplayable spell at some point in the first test, if not they were likely to lose anyways he just accelerated the inevitable. Drop him and move on.

He'd be a bad selection in a series where Australia were decent favorites not here imo.

Broad bowled well today. Can see him being more of a threat than Anderson tbh

someone remind me why this has come round so quickly again? only seems like yesterday when broad was edging for fun perfecting his leave

World Cup/make a **** load of tv money from Canada and Kenya next year in Australia

I'd agree with this if he wasn't 30+ and didn't have a track record of failing under pressure. Now that I think about it I was exaggerating a lot when I said he shouldn't be in the side, we are that crap atm that he is probably in the best 3 pace bowlers in the country also taking into account injuries (Bird, Starc, Pattinson and perhaps Cummins are all in front but are injured).

I give us about 0% chance of winning this series so would prefer us to go with someone who has at least a chance of a future at test level and who won't humiliate on the national stage. It was just cringeworthy listening to the Barmy Army being mean to him last time they came out here, I will not be happy if it happens again.

One other thing to consider is that Watson won't be bowling and I always thought we needed that all rounder as insurance when Johnson played because he was capable of being so terrible.

My biggest gripe with him is he can't bowl line and length and you just getcrushed if you can't do that on Australian pitches. If you can bowl line and length like McGrath or even Stuart Clarke then Australia is a great place to bowl, if you can't then it's curtains.

Yeah maybe saying Waugh was overrated is a bit harsh. He was never really tested though because Australia was so dominant in his period as skipper. I mean they selecting batsman based on how well they gelled with the team rather than performance which seems ridiculous considering how low on depth and quality we are at the moment. I did like the ruthless culture that brought about ideas like "mental disintegration" in Waugh's team however

Ponting at least got tested when Australia started to decline and didn't come off that well strategically imo. Great lead by example captain though which is similar to how I view Waugh - nobody could question their mental strength.

Also I don't think I can forget about Waugh's umbrella field at the start of an innings. Usually 4 slips and a gully or 3 slips and 2 gullys plus usually a bat pad with maybe a mid off and point. That was a throw back to pre-1960s international cricket.

Yeah I miss Australia being awesome at sport

fat + blonde = warnie vibes

On-field he's been pretty good, although his strategic moves aren't always that top notch. Think last test in England where he declared early thus giving England a shot at winning but not Australia. Great for spectators but not so good otherwise. The man came this close to going 4-zip. Rod Marsh went ballistic at him prior to the decision. Apparently his face was purple.

Smith can bat. That is all that matters. Not much of a future captain though despite the media hype.

Smith seems a likable enough bloke. Good fielder. Turns the ball (with no accuracy whatsoever). Bats like he's chopping wood (but what do I know). And he looks a bit like a hillbilly rapist from an Aussie Deliverance remake. All in all a fun guy to have around.

Some thoughts:

England selection: Sounds like Finn bowled terribly today but got a five for. I'm yet to feel confident about him in a four man attack. But then again Tremlett seems to be over the hill and Rankin is untried at test level so he might be the best England can do. The extra batsman seems up in the air, based on the very limited warm up form it could be Carberry opening with Root dropping down. I hope Ballance gets some runs so that doesn't happen (loads of runs in div 1 should count for something).

Australia selection: Bailey looks nailed on to debut. I'd argue that his odi form and fc average of 38 justify giving him an extended run given the dearth of real contenders. Johnson also looks certain to play, which will delight the Barmy Army but he obviously has it in him to knock over proper batsman. If Faulkner plays for Watson, where does he slot in? 6? 7? He looks a bit bits and pieces for test cricket IMO. But his chippy interviews in the last series were pretty loltastic so let's hope for more of that. I'm hoping for some more outlandish statements from him and Lehmann.

Much as I hate to agree with Shane Warne, his assessment of the captains (Cook defensive and unimaginative, Clarke opposite) is correct. Cook seems to be a much better manager of personalities though, as the cases of Watson and KP seem to show.

My curiosity got the best of me, so I have entered this thread not knowing what in the heck "The Ashes" might be.

I'm still not sure....cricket??

Correct

England are gonna romp it

Cook is gonna have another blinder