Why the Pace of Lords Could be the Australian's Undoing

So after England dug in on the final day Cardiff, in a match where only two sessions were lost to rain, we move to Lords where a result with or without rain is almost certain to crop up.

In 2005 we saw 17 wickets fall on the opening day at the home of cricket, and with another bowler friendly pitch predicted for this test match we could see much of the same this year.

The pitch is sure to be a far cry from the one we saw in Cardiff last year, which saw a deluge of runs and plenty of anguish for the England bowlers.

Recent history has told us England rarely take 20 wickets on a batting friendly pitch, the tour to the West Indies showed us that, so the pitch they should be confronted with on Thursday they should thrive upon.

The loss of Andrew Flintoff on a pitch such as this will be a big one, and if the Lancashire allrounder is ruled out the onus on Steve Harmison will be even greater, not the sort of pressure the seamer would have wanted on his return to the test side.

The Durham bowler infamously gave the Aussies a hostile reception in the first test at Lords in 2005, cutting Ricky Ponting early on before taking eight wickets in the match.

For selection in this match he jumps ahead of Graeme Onions, given his track record on this surface and his ability to rough up the Australian batsman, who had an easy time of it at Cardiff.

Onions however doesn’t deserve this shun as he’s the leading wicket taker in county cricket and given his performance on his debut against the West Indies on this same ground it’s disappointing to see him miss out, but does he provide the same fear factor as Harmison?

I’m of the opinion he doesn’t but given Flintoff’s injury we might see both of them included, which would probably be the fairest compromise and give the selectors an easy decision to make, something they wouldn’t have had if Flintoff had been fit.

Australia’s seamer don’t have the same bounce and immense pace at their disposal, assuming of course that Brett Lee will miss out due to the form of the side from Cardiff.

Mitchell Johnson does provide a certain amount of bounce, but Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus will reply on similar swing and seam movement they received at Sophia Gardens, something that is not always on offer at Lords.

Ricky Ponting’s selection headache is just as painful as England’s and it will be fascinating to see the two sides at the toss on Thursday morning, but as with Cardiff we might be in for a few surprises both in the teams and in the result.