Thwarted Australia call upon Harris and Bollinger

The selectors reacted to yesterday's draw against England at the Gabba by adding fast bowlers Ryan Harris and Doug Bollinger to the XI who played in Brisbane.

Both those seamers were in the initial squad for Brisbane but Harris's chronic knee injury meant he was not ultimately available for selection, and left-armer Bollinger lost out to Peter Siddle.

The latter took a career-best six for 54, including a hat-trick, in England's first innings.

But Mitchell Johnson did not do himself justice, finishing with match figures of 0-170 as well as dropping a chance and making a duck in the high-scoring stalemate.

The Australian press mixed praise for England with a damning assessment of their own team's display.

Columnist Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, said: "St George was slaying the dragon. In a trice Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott became not shaky players susceptible to bounce but machines churning out runs.

"The Barmy Army roared its approval and the locals were stunned into silence. It had been a long time since any Australian outfit, let alone its cricket team, was treated with such disdain by any opponent, let alone a bunch of Poms.

"England had been down and almost out. Now they were putting the boot in."

Greg Baum was equally critical in his column in the same paper.

He wrote: "Jonathan Trott made an effortless 135 not out, sharing 329 with Alastair Cook, the most for England for any wicket in Australia.

"Here, shudder to think it, is England's future, and Australia's."

The Courier Mail, which is based in Brisbane, believes Cricket Australia must demand pitches that are likely to produce a result for the rest of the series as they try to regain the urn.

The Courier's Ben Dorries wrote: "Granted, the Gabba pitch was as flat as a pancake after the opening two days. But if Australia's quicks could hardly fire a shot on the pitch which has overtaken Perth as Australia's bounciest track, how the hell are they going to do any better anywhere else?"