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.

Harmison Bowls Himself Into Contention

Five days to go and the action is beggining to hot up on the pitch as well as off it with the England v Warickshire and England Lions v Australia matches running in tandem. Day three of both games and it's a man who divides opinion like no other Englishman that's making the headlines.

Steve Harmison has taken the wicket of Philip Hughes cheaply in both innings. The Aussie dangerman looked all at sea against a barrage of Harmison short stuff. Flintoff, Broad and Anderson will have taken note, but when it comes to extracting bounce from a pitch an in-form Harmison is England's best option. Expect this to be the talking point of the run up to the first Test.