Bruiser Bresnan can lift England off canvas on Boxing Day

We have lift off: Tim Bresnan, in action for England during a tour match against Victorian Bushrangers last week, can bolster the seam attack
10 April 2012

England must seriously consider changing the basic structure of the team for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

The policy of playing only four front-line bowlers was always high risk under a hot Australian sun and while the batsmen must certainly carry most of the blame for the heavy defeat in Perth, the fact that Australia could wriggle off the hook at 69 for five in the first innings and score a total of 268 was also a significant contributing factor.

They really should have been finished off for 150 but with Graeme Swann's orthodox off spin negated by a grassy pitch, the hard work was shouldered entirely by James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Steven Finn — goodness knows what would happen if one of them were to be injured under the current system.

Rather than the killer punch being landed by a fourth, fresh pace bowler, Australia's lower order was able to rally and while it was ultimately Mitchell Johnson's brilliant spell of fast bowling that won the match, those extra 100 runs in the first innings were also crucial.

If I were in the Australian camp, I would be demanding grassy pitches for both the Melbourne and Sydney Tests. This is not merely because Australia do not possess a spinner worthy of the name, and it can be risky because England's fast bowlers are just as effective as Australia's.

But it would impact upon Andrew Strauss's team in two ways. The grass diminishes Swann's effectiveness — he was not able even to play a containing role in Perth — and this robs England of one of its most dangerous bowlers. That leaves England needing to play an additional bowler. This in turn destabilises the team, which is now very used to the current balance, and weakens its batting. At a stroke, Australia would force England onto the back foot.

Paul Collingwood would be the batsman to miss out in that situation. He has taken two brilliant, match-winning catches in the series but is in poor form with the bat.

His dismissals in the Perth Test, in which he produced tentative footwork after being badly unsettled by bouncers in both innings, did not look pretty at all. He will be bombed by the fast bowlers from now on and urgently needs to restore his confidence.

With Ian Bell in such beautiful touch at the moment, there is a strong argument for moving Collingwood down the order in any case. England would miss his fielding should they bolster the seam attack by bringing in Tim Bresnan but the argument about weakening the batting is worthless because Collingwood is not scoring any runs anyway.

Those two aspects of their game are all that England need to examine. In many ways they are still in a much stronger position than Australia, whose victory was earned almost entirely by the efforts of Johnson and the remarkable Mike Hussey.

Significantly they both play their domestic cricket on the uniquely bouncy WACA pitch. Only Shane Watson, of the East Coast Australians, came to terms with it, while there were more failures for Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke.

Stand-in opener Phil Hughes and No6 Steve Smith looked out of their depth, yet they have still been named in the team to face England in Melbourne. While Ponting will probably have to go through the pain barrier with his fractured finger in order to play, he will not want to miss it for the world.

It will mean, however, that the captain who averages only 16 in the series — which includes an unbeaten half century — will not be able to have some much-needed practice beforehand.

Australia's batting is fragile and there for the taking, reinforcing the need for England to take positive action and play that extra bowler.

It was good to see Tremlett among the wickets. Now 29, and with a reputation for being a little soft, this is a crucial tour for him.

With Stuart Broad out of the reckoning, Tremlett has the opportunity to establish his place in the team, as well as to bury any doubts about his motivation and desire for hard and, at times, painful work.

The WACA track was perfect for a man of his height and he bowled superbly. Anderson was as impressive as always, and enjoyed the opportunity to swing the ball, and while Finn is still not at his economical best, he does seem to have the happy knack of taking wickets.

Aged only 21, he did look to be struggling a bit in Australia's second innings and if England had to lose the game, at least they did so quickly enough for Finn to benefit with a couple of extra days to recuperate.

The Melbourne Ashes Test is already one of those special days in the sporting calendar and looks set to break all records when, on Boxing Day, it is expected that up to 90,000 people will pack into the MCG to witness the next dramatic instalment of this series.

I am sure that the public's faith in the team has taken a bit of a hit back home after this bruising defeat but I am not altering my prediction at the start of the tour. I still fancy England to win 3-1.

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