Several leading Australian fast bowlers are injured but that may have been avoidable if the team was more proactive in resting and rotating key players.

For a cricket team known for an array of rash and provocative statements over the past three years, England has kept a relatively low profile since arriving in Perth.

England fast bowler Mark Wood could play in the first Ashes test against Australia starting next Friday after scans cleared him of a hamstring injury. Wood experienced tightness in his left hamstring after bowling his eighth over on the opening day of England’s three-day warm-up match at Lilac Hill in Perth on Thursday.

Australia's Ashes dominance on home soil has been such that it is hard to envision them as anything other than favourites, even if they head into the series with weaknesses that can be exploited by England,