With the start of the Ashes series now just days away, the Australians are facing selection headaches, unthinkable for so many years as the same XI or XII steamrolled virtually all opponents who faced them.

Of principal concern is the lack of quality spin options. Since the retirements of Shane Warne and Stuart McGill, no viable front line spinner has surfaced to fill the void and England are preying on this, with talk of an ‘Indian’ wicket for the first Test at Cardiff starting on Wednesday, helped by a heat wave (still cooler than Colombo though). England also has two competent finger spinners in Graham Swann and Monty Panesar in their ranks.

The current Australian incumbent Nathan Hauritz has taken a hiding in the warm up games and has no pedigree to fall back upon. Lambasted in both the Australian and English press, if he is to be selected, the pressure on him will be immense and with short boundaries and no left handed middle order batsmen to bowl at, he will have to raise his game to unprecedented levels and hope that luck comes his way.

Since the exclusion of off spinning all rounder Andrew Symonds for consistent breach of discipline, Marcus North has been heralded as a viable spin option. However, North averages less than a wicket a game in his first class career at an average north of 40 and has had no success so far in his short Test career with the ball. To further confound the issue, North is badly out of form with the bat.

Shane Watson, perhaps the most injury prone player in world cricket, is once again injured and with no reserve batsmen in the squad.

North, even with his lack of form looks safe. The only viable option would be for the Australians to play to their seam bowling strength and pick four seamers, plus Hauritz, drop North and move keeper Brad Haddin up to six with the blossoming all rounder Mitchell Johnson at seven. This is a high risk strategy and is unlikely to be pursued at the start of the series.

Further back up spinners include Simon Katich with his big turning, but inconsistent left arm wrist spin and vice captain Michael Clark known for having a golden arm with his orthodox left armers. Relying on three part timers which may well be the case should the Aussies pick four seamers would be tricky: akin to Sri Lanka starting a Test match at Galle with Dilshan, Arnold and De Silva as their spin options.

On a brighter note for the Antipodeans, Bret Lee has returned to form after a long injury lay off in the tourist’s ongoing game against the English 2nd XI. After a fruitless first session and a half, Lee, after a alleged spat with skipper Ricky Ponting cranked up the pace to 150KMPH and found the all important reverse swing. Surprisingly, Lee garnered his first class five wicket haul in England on his third tour.

Johnson and new quickie Peter Siddle who performed admirably against the South Africans, look assured of their places alongside the rejuvenated Lee, leaving it for the accurate, but on the evidence of the current warm up game, toothless Stuart Clark and Hauritz to battle it out for the final bowling spot.

Michael Hussey made a welcome return to form with 150 on the first day of the last warm up match and Katich made a typically gutsy 90, but new boy Philip Hughes looked all at sea against the pace and bounce of a fired up Steve Harminson, being clonked on the helmet before playing a lifter to slip. Skipper Ricky Ponting also looks leaden footed and short of confidence and with selection headaches burdening him, England’s potent new ball attack, led by arguably the best new ball bowler in world cricket at the moment in Jimmy Anderson, will be champing at the bit to get started with their work on Wednesday.