Video: The Ashes 2013-14: Michael Clarke 'announces' Chris Tremlett and Michael Carberry in England's team for first Test I am very confident that is the 11 that England will play. I know there is going to be a lot of talk about their tall fast bowlers and playing at the Gabba where there is going to be plenty of bounce. But I am confident that will be the 11 so I think it's really important for Darren Lehmann and myself over the next few days to make sure we start preparing for our opposition while a lot of the guys are still playing in this last first-class game. Although Clarke's team appeared plausible - there are question marks over wicketkeeper Matt Prior's fitness, but England have not given up hope that he will play at the Gabba next week - Clarke was almost certainly talking with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. Even so, England's players and manage­ment are unlikely to be impressed by his attempt at gamesmanship and it risks ­creating further bad blood between the teams, who clashed repeatedly during the summer series in England. The verbal sparring began in August when Darren Lehmann, Australia's coach, was forced to apologise to Broad after he said that he hoped Australia fans would send the England seamer home in tears for his "blatant cheating" when he did not walk after he edged spinner Ashton Agar to slip, via the gloves of wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, in the first Test at Trent Bridge. The outspoken Lehmann then accused England of playing "dour" cricket on their way to a 3-0 series victory and also claimed that Australia had "made inroads" into finding ways of dismissing Jonathan Trott. Former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne joined in shortly after England arrived in Australia, when he labelled Cook's captaincy as "boring" and "negative." Last week England were ridiculed in the Australian media when an 82-page list of their catering demands, which have been sent to the grounds that will stage Ashes Tests, were made public. Among the 194 dishes and drinks devised by Chris Rosimus, performance nutritionist of the England and Wales Cricket Board, were piri-piri breaded tofu with tomato salsa, a quinoa and cranberry breakfast bar and mungbean curry with spinach. England have so far refused to enter a war of words with the Australians, instead preferring to concentrate on their warm-up matches cricket ahead of the Test series. Before England left for Australia, all-rounder Broad had said: "We are very happy where we are, we have got some very skilful players and we don't need to comment on Australia, we don't need to comment on them as a team. We are more than happy for them to comment on us. That position was slightly undermined yesterday when Kevin Pieter­sen risked antagonising his hosts by suggesting that England should call the Australians "convicts" during their stay in the country. Writing on his Twitter feed, he had asked his followers: "You know how the Aussies call us, Poms? What's the English allowed to call the Aussies? A few minutes later he replied: "Right, so the answer to my earlier question.. We settling on #convicts? This could trend with some RT action?!!?! His comments were criticised by former Australia international ­Damien Martyn, who wrote on his Twitter account: @KP24 convicts really? Meanwhile, England had to put on a brave face yet again as heavy rain prevented an outdoor practice, before their final Ashes warm-up match against an Australian Invitational XI in Sydney, which started last night. The tourists" hopes of a meaningful warm-up match against Australia A in Hobart last week were thwarted by the weather, which wiped out two days of play and affected a third, while the wet weather has now followed them to the mainland, where practice has been restricted to the indoor nets. "We make the best of what we can indoors," said Finn. In an ideal world, we'd have practised outside - but not everything is ideal. We're well-versed in dealing with the weather, coming from England so it's not the end of the world. We're not too downhearted about it, and I'm sure - if the weather's nice for these four days - we'll be able to get out there and set our standards high.