England v Australia: Chris Woakes expecting to be drafted in to replace injured James Anderson at Edgbaston England have a strength in depth at the moment, especially among their pace bowlers, that is the envy of their rivals. But whichever combination plays today Australia need to alter their tactics or their team, or both, to check England's progress. If they do not, the five-match series will be lost and Alastair Cook's side will be on for the clean sweep that would put England top of all three formats concurrently. So far, the main differences have been England's decisive batting, as compared to Australia's dithering, and the respective performances of the teams" fifth bowlers. The 10 overs by England's fifth bowler (mostly Tim Bresnan but some with a soupcon of Ravi Bopara) have gone for 5.5 runs an over across the two games while Australia's (an amalgam of Shane Watson, Clarke and David Hussey) have conceded 6.35 runs. In a form of the game often settled by small details that is a big difference. To fight like with like, Australia need to bring in a pace bowler who can hit the seam, though they should have spotted that as soon as Pat Cummins was ruled out with a side injury. If they had, then James Pattinson or Ben Hilfenhaus would surely have been picked ahead of Mitchell Johnson in the last game. With a new ball at each end, their high actions and firm wrists are far more likely to pose a threat in these conditions than Johnson's low-arm slingers which are better suited to providing shock and awe on hard, quick pitches. Unless the game is shortened by more rain, and it is forecast, Pattinson or Hilfenhaus, or both, should play. According to George Bailey, Australia's T20 captain and the team's second highest scorer in the last game with 65, the visitors have at least recognised the need to ape England's batting tactics of laying a platform and then accelerating rapidly, with wickets in hand, over the last 15 overs of the innings. The trouble is they got bogged down with the first bit, their 252 for four in the last match not competitive enough, especially with a fifth bowler comprising all-rounders rather than a specialist. "There are no secrets in the way England play," said Bailey on Tuesday. It's a really obvious game plan, but they are executing it very well. You can see the power of not losing too many wickets and then having your middle-order come in and have that freedom. But we probably slipped too far behind to allow that platform to be set. Apparently, Australia have not been despondent about their defeats, despite their resounding nature, Bailey citing the buzz aboard the team bus as evidence that they have not yet thrown in the towel. "One of the risks of going 2-0 down is that it's a quiet bus, but the boys were still up on the journey to Birmingham," said Bailey. There's the belief that we haven't played as well as we can. If we can start to lift our game we can certainly challenge England and stay alive in the series.