three and easy for england

Panesar - must return for England.

By Dave Tickner

If England are going to keep any kind of foothold in this series, then three things need to happen in Adelaide.

Two are so straightforward and obvious (pick Monty Panesar, drop Ashley Giles), only an England cricket selector could fail to spot them. The third (win the toss) is a bit trickier to control.

So back to one and two.

Test cricket is a wonderful game, with myriad variations in line-up, tactics and techniques.

But I would wager no team in Test history has ever selected a specialist number-eight batsman before.

If, as expected, England pick both their spinners in Adelaide, then we'll have a first in Test cricket.

Australia toyed with playing two spinners in Adelaide, and in the end decided against it. And they possess two of the very best spinners in world cricket. England don't.

Why pick two spinners if one of them isn't good enough?

Giles offers such little threat with the ball it's embarrassing. While Steve Harmison and James Anderson also offered little in Brisbane, there is at least the possibility of wickets to come from them. Indeed, if England have any hope in this series, Harmison must locate his best form, and talk of him losing his place is surely wide of the mark.

But it's simply unthinkable that Giles will get any wickets in this series without generous assistance from the batsman.

At this moment, the five bowlers with the best, albeit slim, chance of getting England back into this series are Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff, Anderson and Panesar.

The fact that of that quintet only Flintoff can hold a bat is unfortunate, but ultimately irrelevant. Batsmen get you runs, bowlers win you Test matches.

England realistically need to win two of the remaining Test matches, so need their best five bowlers.

Panesar in a straight swap for Giles is the only realistic change England can make, with the top six picking themselves, Geraint Jones playing well in Brisbane and no viable fast-bowling alternatives. And slot Monty straight into the batting order at number eight as well because he's no better or worse with the bat than the rest of the bowlers.

He has more talent than Hoggard and a tighter technique than Harmison, and his batting is certainly nowhere near as bad as his fielding.

England's strategy in Adelaide should be simple: Win toss, score runs, unleash Mont-ster.