England is certainly a confident side now after winning second test match at Adelaide and Australians will be down and out and how bad is situation for the Aussies can be understood from the fact that there has been lot of talk for bringing back spin wizard Shane Warne from retirement to play at WACA. When Punter and his men take the field tomorrow at WACA(Perth), they will certainly go through the acid test in this third test match because England will not going to give them an inch and its upto the Aussies to play great cricket and beat England at WACA. Aussies can take the heart from the fact that England have won only 1 test match out of the last 11 matches they played at this very venue.
As far as Ponting is concerned he is in double trouble because he has to play role with bat and also as a captain and on both the front he failed in previous two encounters so if he fail again at WACA then he will be in soup and probably this will end his illustrious career because Aussie selectors will take tough decisions thats for sure and often captain becomes the victim of such tough decisions.For Ponting, good thing is that Mitchell Johnson is back in the side and his record is very good at WACA and this will motivate Johnson to do well at WACA and bring home the glory of victory. For Aussies openers have given them reasonable starts in both the matches but it is the middle-order which troubling them. Mike Hussey is the only player who looks in form and holding up the middle-order. I think Clarke has given indication of coming into form by scoring 80 runs in last match at Adelaide and that is good news for Aussies. But I feel most important from Aussie point of view is big runs from the bat of Ponting because he is the player around whom Aussie batting revolves and if Ponting score big runs in this match then I feel Aussies will become confident to win this match. Remember No.3 batting position is very crucial for any team and Australia is no exception. It is Ponting's failure with bat which is creating more problems for the Aussies then anything else but as we all know Ponting is class act and he will come good because it is do or die situation for him and his team. I am also surprised on the exclusion of Nathan Hauritz from the squad. He was with the team for quite a long time and I firmly believe he must have been included in the team instead of going for unknown quantity in Michael Beer whose domestic record is average and who himself is not confident of playing the match. Steve Smith is good inclusion in the side in place of Marcus North as Smith add variety to the Aussie bowling and he is handy batsman as well down the order.
As far as England is concerned the have everything in place after two test-matches. Matt Prior has already declared that his side will not going to lose any match in this tour and that shows how confident Englishmen are on this tour. Good thing for England is that, each and every player is probably going through purple patch and everybody is contributing to the success. Cook, Struass, Trott and Pietersen already have hundreds under their belt in this tour so far.Bowling is also doing well as Anderson, Finn and Swann are among wickets and all of them picked up atleast one five wicket haul in both the matches played so far but I must say England have play out of their skins at WACA because Aussies will certainly come hard at them. If England will become little complacent and rest on the laurels of last match victory then will lose the game so England have to be careful and have to forget the last match victory and concentrate on this match fully to ensure that they win this match and further dent the Aussie confidence which will eventually help England in winning the Ashes down-under this time.
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