James Pattinson has been rested from the Lord's Ashes Test, leaving Josh Hazlewood in line to make his entry into the series at the venue where he delivered his best spells of the 2015 series.
Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were both in the Australian 12-man squad unveiled on Tuesday morning, but Pattinson will be rested after his often hostile displays at Edgbaston in the tourists' opening win. This will mean Australia have a fresh Pattinson at their disposal for the second match in back-to-back Tests, to be played at Leeds next week with only three days in between.
Australia captain Tim Paine conceded that in the past Pattinson's bowling and body had not always been used with all the due care and attention his talents deserved, contributing to a litany of injures that ultimately forced him to fly to New Zealand for back surgery in 2017 that was effectively a final effort to allow him to return to international ranks.
"We're really happy with the group of fast bowlers we've got at the moment, we think in all conditions all of them can play a really important role in this series but we've spoken to that group of bowlers about making sure that we have that core group of bowlers going forward for the next two to three years," Paine said. "They're all quite young in age, and in James' case in particular he's come back off a really long lay-off, a really serious operation and we want to make sure he's cherry ripe for the next three or four years.
"What we've done in the past with James is got him back, we know how good he is so we keep using him and keep bowling him and eventually he's broken again. So we're really lucky in the fact we've got two bowlers on the sidelines that are world class, and we want to make sure that James is absolutely cherry ripe every time he plays. He's available for selection but we've decided to rest him for this game and make sure his long-term future is in really good shape."
To that end, Paine indicated that for the remainder of the series Pattinson would play one each of the two pairs of back-to-back Tests that round out the series, depending on his fitness and conditions. "It was always going to be one way or the other," Paine said. "He would miss this Test and be fresher for the third Test or he has this one after the long break and doesn't play in the third. I think if you look at Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood's records at Lord's, it is a good venue for one of those to come in and play and be confident in the fact they can bowl really well here."
National team coach Justin Langer has been overt in stating that Australia's plans to face England are derived in part from the successful 2004 tour of India, where the team led by Adam Gilchrist was able to corral a vintage Indian batting lineup into error by drying up their regular supply of boundaries, leaving out Brett Lee's extra pace in the process.
"I remember watching it, not all that much, but yeah we've spoken about how we want to play our cricket, we've spoken about teams in the past that we want to try and emulate," Paine said. "I'm sure every team around the world is the same, you talk about a style or brand of cricket you want to play. We're no different, you look to take things from great teams that you see, and try and take those bits that fit with your current group.
"We've got 17 guys here who are completely different people to those who were on that tour but there's some things we can take from what that team did and what we think is important for Australian cricket teams. To have people like Steve Waugh around us is really helpful when you want to bounce ideas or talk about the past or what it means to play for Australia and that's something this group is really conscious of that we're always really respectful of people that have come before us and we want to leave the Australian cricket team in a better place than we came to it."
As for bowling combinations, Paine said he had no problem playing both Hazlewood and Peter Siddle in the Lord's XI. "We can certainly play Josh and Peter together tomorrow ... obviously Mitchell is seen as more of a strike weapon, but he's been working really hard on his control," Paine said. "There's not set combinations, we just come in the morning, have a look and go with a bit of a gut feel. We're not always going to get it right, but you try to make the best possible decision that you can."
Australia squad: Tim Paine (capt & wk), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Matthew Wade, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.