Aussies eye redemption at Lord's

Clarke's men look to level the series against confident England in the second Test

Australia will be greeted by blazing sunshine and a venue where they lost only once last century when they arrive at Lord’s on Thursday for the second Ashes Test against England determined to level the five-match series.

After heroic last-wicket stands in each innings, Australia eventually lost by 14 runs on Sunday. But they will be buoyed by the resilience and resource they showed at the midpoint of a horrible year in which they have been beaten 4-0 in India and failed to advance past the first round of the Champions Trophy.

Despite the narrow margin in Nottingham, England were ultimately deserved winners and James Anderson at the height of his powers produced the decisive deliveries of the game to account for two of his 10 wickets.

Australia will relish the sun and the surroundings at the home of world cricket. To recover from one-down and regain the Ashes, though, their top-order batting must fire and Usman Khawaja may come in at number three to replace the out-of-form Ed Cowan.

Clarke, who enjoyed a wondrous 2012 with 1,595 runs at an average of precisely 106, failed in both innings after his build-up was hampered by a chronic back ailment.

The only other Australian batsman of comparable pedigree is the highly gifted but perennially frustrating Shane Watson who contributed 46 to a second-innings opening partnership of 84.

Australia urgently need an innings from Watson of a stature to match his talent and Lord's would be the perfect setting to shrug off the under-achiever’s tag. But he will be under even more pressure after it was reported in Australia that Arthur had claimed Clarke had described his former vice-captain as “a cancer” in the side. Another option is to drop a batsman and play five specialist bowlers with off-spinner Nathan Lyon joining Ashton Agar.

Agar, who fell two short on his debut of becoming the first number 11 in Test history to make a century, took two for 82 from 35 overs in the second innings with his left-arm orthodox spin. In contrast to Australia's fragile top order, England's key batsmen scored runs at critical times at Trent Bridge.

Jonathan Trott contributed 48 to their modest first-innings 215 and captain Alastair Cook (50) laid a solid foundation in the second with Kevin Pietersen (64).

The crucial innings came from Ian Bell, whose 109 in more than six hours was perfectly calibrated for a sun-baked pitch demanding intense concentation with its low, slow and sometimes unpredictable bounce.

England have named the same 13-man squad for the Test with the final decision again resting between the pacemen Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions.