Cricket: Aussie trial in Dubai

An otherwise insignificant Twenty20 match in Dubai will provide one of the most important steps in determining Australia's Ashes squad.

The one-off game against Pakistan on Thursday has been targeted as the likely return to the bowling crease after injury for both paceman Brett Lee and all-rounder Shane Watson. With selectors due to convene just seven or eight days later to decide a 15-man squad for the England tour, which starts next month, assessing that pair's form and fitness looms as their most pivotal and difficult job. Many of the other spots seem straightforward.

Top five batsmen Phil Hughes, Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey are all certainties, as is wicketkeeper Brad Haddin. Pacemen Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle can also start packing. Two more quicks - Stuart Clark and Ben Hilfenhaus - have strong claims.

Off-spinner Nathan Hauritz should be the frontline slow bowler.

The biggest tests for selectors will probably be choosing which one of four allrounders - Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson, Marcus North and Andrew McDonald - to leave at home and deciding how risky it is to select either or both of Lee and Watson. Lee, 32, and with a modest record in tests in England, bristled at suggestions that he could be overlooked in favour of the younger generation of quicks. But he admitted he could not make any guarantees about exactly when he would be back to full fitness.

If Lee misses out, left-armer Doug Bollinger, a recent debutant at both Test and one-day level, could get the call. If so, Australia would be visiting England with an entirely different group of bowlers than that taken on their last tour there in 2005.

- AAP