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England have maintained flexibility for the first Ashes Test by including spin bowler Bashir in a twelve-player team combined with five seamers

Mark Wood is declared fit and appears likely to feature against Australia in Perth on Friday, with the final decision likely coming down to the young spinner and pace bowler Brydon Carse

Wicket Factors

If the visitors select an all-pace attack - four main pacers along with multi-skilled player Stokes - it would possibly be the quickest collection of pacemen they have used in an Test against Australia in the host nation

Earlier this week local pitch curator Isaac McDonald commented to anticipate "pace and bounce" from the pitch at the stadium, and it appears probable the tourists will follow a traditional approach of an exclusively pace attack

Yet the English team have also noted a arid quality to the pitch, putting the off-spinner into the running

Spin Considerations

During the brief existence of this venue - five previous Tests have been staged here - Australia spin bowler Lyon is the most successful bowler with 29

England have backed Shoaib, twenty-two, as their first-choice spinner for over twelve months and in recent months he was recognized as the youngest England bowler to achieve half-century of wickets in international Tests

But he has missed a first-class game following claiming the last dismissal in a thrilling win over India in the final Test at Lord's in recently

Current Concerns

He has been recovering from a broken finger and found it difficult in England's only warm-up match against England Lions, returning overall statistics of 2 for 151 from twenty-four overs

This creates the prospect of Bashir participating in an Ashes Test without being contracted with a domestic team

The agreement at the domestic team ended at the finish of the English season

Expected Selection

Nevertheless, an England team containing Mark Wood, Archer, Atkinson, leader Stokes and Brydon Carse - all of whom are able to achieve 90mph - stays the probable result

The opening match begins at early morning GMT on Friday, with real-time updates, specialist radio coverage and live action clips provided

England Squad

Team lineup for series opener: Ben Duckett, Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Brook, Ben Stokes (leader), Smith (wicketkeeper), Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Bashir

Past Experience

While a several successful Ashes campaigns at in England and overseas have been founded on quick bowling, they have not previously selected as numerous fast bowlers in the identical lineup

The lineup that won at domestically in the memorable competition of 2005 Ashes featured Harmison, Jones and Andrew Flintoff

Illingworth's winning English side to Australia in those years had Bob Willis, Lever and John Snow, and the English side that succeeded in those seasons included Statham and Frank 'Typhoon' Tyson

Present Circumstances

In this instance - potentially the most exciting Ashes series in modern times - the visitors are looking to overturn an awful record - they have not won a five-day game in the host country since that year

Merely five individuals of the 16-man squad have played a Test match in the host nation, but Atkinson comments that could benefit the English team

"This could represent an benefit," he explained to the press

"There are a lot of players who have stated they have had some tough times in this country

"For us, we are a quite calm, very positive team

"No negative experiences

"It's thrilling

"We all see it as a huge opportunity to create history"

Host Team Situation

The Australian net session on this week was temporarily interrupted by the threat of lightning

The hosts are likely to give a debut to batsman Jack Weatherald, with uncapped fast bowler Brendan Doggett also joining due to health issues to skipper Cummins and colleague Josh Hazlewood