Vaughan to play Wednesday

While England had a closed net session in Adelaide on Tuesday afternoon, they received some excellent news from Perth that Michael Vaughan will play on Wednesday for the ECB Academy against a Western Australia 2nd XI in a one-day match. The Ashes-winning England captain has made a quicker-than-expected recovery from his latest knee operation and hopes to be fit for the triangular one-day series in January, possibly even sooner.

  Realistically, Vaughan would only play a part in the Ashes series in the event of injury to one of the current party's batsmen. Even then, it would be a gamble given that England have no more first-class games ouitside the Test series in which to test Vaughan out fully. Of much more pressing concern is the form of Steve Harmison, the main reason why England's net session was closed to public scrutiny. Kevin Shine, the England fast bowling coach, declared that Harmison was making good progress in the nets, but he could hardly be expected to say anything else.

The England party endured a frustrating flight down from Brisbane, being kept on the tarmac for an hour, after boarding their Qantas flight in the Queensland capital, because of an industrial dispute. Harmison, like Andrew Strauss and Andrew Flintoff had his young family with him on thre flight. Strauss' Australian wife, Ruth, together with their son Sam, are in Australia for the whole tour.

Australia, meanwhile, are expected to name an unchanged side for the second Test, starting in Adelaide on Friday. Shane Watson's continued hamstring problems mean there is no room for a second spinner in Stuart MacGill. Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson are likely to miss out once again.