Warm-up Matches Analysis

Reasons to be cheerful and reasons to be fearful that arose from the England v Warickshire and England Lions v Australia matches.

Cheerful

• All batsmen (with the exception of Pietersen) made runs.
• The continued excellent form of Anderson.
• No shortage of bowling options with Flintoff looking fit, hungry and in-form, Panesar taking three wickets (admittedly all tailenders) and Harmison looking a real threat.
• Identifying Philip Hughes's weakness against the short ball.
• Mitchell Johnson looking below par and struggling to swing the ball until the final session of the match.

Fearful

• Mike Hussey and Marcus North feeling their way back into form whilst enjoying considerable time in the middle and making big hundreds.
• A rejuvenated Brett Lee causing havoc with an outstanding spell of reverse swing that had Troy Cooley's stamp all over it.
• Ian Bell only scoring 20 runs in the match. Injury or loss of form to any of the top six is likely to thrust him into the action, and a significant innings here would have done his confidence no harm.

Overall both teams will be satisfied with their work-outs. The two games merely confirmed that this is likely to be an extremely tight series. The talking points for England: what to do with Harmison, and how many spinners to play in Cardiff. A 13-man squad for the first Test will be announced at 10:00 am tomorrow.