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The English side has kept their options open for the initial Ashes match by naming slow bowler the young spinner in a twelve-player team alongside five fast bowlers

Mark Wood is declared fit and seems set to play facing the hosts in Perth on the weekend, with the ultimate choice possibly coming down to spinner Bashir and pace bowler Brydon Carse

Ground Situation

Should England choose an all-pace attack - four specialists plus multi-skilled player the captain - it would potentially be the quickest collection of pacemen they have used in an Ashes match in Australia

On Wednesday Western Australia groundsman McDonald stated to anticipate "speed and bounce" from the surface at the stadium, and it appears probable the tourists will adhere to a established strategy of an exclusively pace attack

However the tourists have also observed a dryness to the pitch, bringing the off-spinner into the running

Spin Considerations

Throughout the limited timeframe of this venue - five previous Tests have been hosted here - Australia spin bowler Nathan Lyon is the top wicket-taker with 29

England have favored Bashir, 22 years old, as their first-choice spinner for over twelve months and in May he achieved the youngest England bowler to reach half-century of wickets in Test matches

But he has been absent from a competitive game following claiming the final wicket in a dramatic victory over the Indian team in the third match at Lord's in summer

Recent Issues

The spinner has been out with a broken finger and struggled in England's only warm-up match against the Lions, posting combined figures of 2 for 151 from 24 overs

This presents the possibility of the spinner playing in an Ashes match without being attached to a county

His contract at Somerset ended at the conclusion of the domestic season

Likely Lineup

However, an visiting team featuring Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Atkinson, skipper Ben Stokes and Carse - every one of them are likely to hit 90 miles per hour - remains the probable result

The opening match begins at 02:20 GMT on the weekend, with live text coverage, Test Match Special commentary and real-time features accessible

Team Selection

Selected players for first Ashes Test: Duckett, Crawley, Pope, Root, Harry Brook, Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Atkinson, Carse, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir

Past Experience

While a several English Ashes victories at in England and overseas have been founded on quick bowling, they have not previously selected as many express pace bowlers in the same team

The side that succeeded at home in the celebrated contest of that year contained Harmison, Simon Jones and Flintoff

The captain's winning English side to the host nation in those years had Willis, Lever and John Snow, and the visiting team that succeeded in 1954-55 contained Statham and Tyson

Present Circumstances

This time around - among the most highly anticipated England-Australia contests in modern times - the English team are aiming to reverse an difficult past - they have failed to win a five-day game in Australia since 2011

Just five players of the sixteen-player group have played a international Test in Australia, but the bowler comments that could work in England's favour

"This could represent an advantage," he mentioned to reporters

"There are a many cricketers who have stated they have had difficult experiences in this country

"Regarding our team, we are a quite calm, highly optimistic team

"No negative experiences

"It's thrilling

"We all see it as a huge opportunity to do something special"

Host Team Situation

Australia's practice session on this week was momentarily paused by the risk of storms

The home side are probably going to give a debut to batsman Jack Weatherald, with yet to debut seamer Brendan Doggett also joining due to fitness concerns to captain Cummins and fellow seamer Hazlewood