The Ashes 2010: Ricky Ponting facing third Test selection headache

There has been much staring at the strip on the eve of the third Ashes Test and much scratching of heads. The appearance of the playing surface at the Waca in Perth has surprised one or two. A mower was parked provocatively on the edge of the square today. But would they use it? Well, it was started at about 1.45pm local time but it did not touch the pitch, only the rest of the square. When the groundstaff put the pitch to bed it was still green. The Australians used to name their team the day before the match. Not any more, though Ricky Ponting might insist this has more to do with the uncertainties about that Waca pitch than the plight of his team and all the recent selectorial shenanigans. • Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues • Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin • How to stay awake during the Tests • Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes • The latest news and comment on our Ashes site "It is still grassy out there," he said at his final pre-match press conference ahead of the match which gets under way tomorrow. Should England win, and take a 2-0 lead in the series, they will retain the Ashes. "There is a lot to think about," Ponting added. "With the fine leaf grass on the square now the ball tends to skip off rather than hold. Having looked at the wicket I think there will be a result here." So he still has to decide upon the balance of his team. The option of picking four fast bowlers and omitting the specialist spinner, in this case Michael Beer, which would be rare course for an Australian team to take, remains alive. "We could use [Ben] Hilfenhaus and [Ryan] Harris into the breeze and [Peter] Siddle and [Mitchell] Johnson down wind," said Ponting. But before we could leap to our conclusions, he added: "Spinners have taken wickets here recently later in the game." If Ponting goes for the four pacemen he will surely have to change his outlook at the toss. He would have to insert the opposition, an option he has spurned since Edgbaston 2005. There is no doubt that he was scarred by Edgbaston … but these are desperate times. Moreover Ponting may be wary of putting his trust in Beer – someone he does not know. "Everyone I've spoken to has given him great raps," he said, which betrays the fact he has never seen Beer bowl in a match. "He's got an infectious personality; he's not shy. He seems like a typical Victorian." The youngsters, Steve Smith, who will bat at six, and Phil Hughes have brought energy to the squad, we were told, before Ponting returned to a recurring theme, which has not been of much relevance on this tour so far. "England do not have a great record here," he said. "The pitch is as foreign to English players as anywhere else in the world." He may have said something similar before the matches at The Gabba and the Adelaide Oval. Andrew Strauss, so far, has had an easier ride at these conferences simply because his team have been playing rather well. He is meticulously polite about his opponents. "Yes, they have a great record here," he said. "So (inevitably) it is a great opportunity for us to do something about that." He acknowledged: "There are differences here, but I don't think it will zip around all over the place with six or seven wickets down by lunch. Speculating too much about the wicket is not helpful. You just have to adapt. In any case our record of reading pitches is not that good." He then continued with the familiar mantra of "not getting ahead of ourselves". "At Headingley [in 2009] we were thinking about winning the Ashes too much and that was unhelpful." Strauss was not at his most forthcoming, whether the topic was the use of lie detectors on cricketers (not at press conferences but to help establish guilt in match-/spot-fixing as suggested by the MCC World Committee) or whom he would be leading out on to the pitch tomorrow, Chris Tremlett or Tim Bresnan? Why should he be any more forthcoming? His polite reticence has served him well throughout this tour, though it later emerged that Tremlett had been given the nod. Unlike Ponting, Strauss knows that he will remain in charge of his team for Melbourne and beyond.