The Ashes - 7

And so to Perth.

The England team is teetering on the brink of another humiliating Ashes series defeat.

To be honest, the Adelaide debacle has left me quite depressed about the state of English cricket. Perhaps Marcus Trescothick had a premonition. The only hope we have is to draw some "improbable comeback" inspiration from the likes of Lazarus, Liverpool and John Travolta. The fact is that only Bradman has inspired a team to win a series from 0-2 down (in 1936-7).

I'm not sure what the team will be tonight, but for my money, we should drop Giles and Anderson for Panesar and Mahmood. We've got to start bowling a hell of a lot better than we have been and surely the Montster must be given a chance. Mahmood can't do any worse than Jimmy and he'd be able to take the King of Spain's place at number 8.

By several accounts, the pitch at the WACA is less fearsome than it was and a draw is the likely outcome. But then we all said that after day 4 in Adelaide, didn't we?