I’ve done all I can do ... now pick me REPORTS, PAGES 56-57

TASMANIAN Matthew Wade has scored a mountain of runs and done more than enough to earn his spot in the Australian cricket squad for the Ashes, which is picked today. Now — with the first Test starting on Thursday — it’s over to the selectors.

MAKING a Test hundred in England is one of David Warner’s final frontiers as a batsman and a week out from putting on his baggy green again the Australian opener says he’s “determined” to make it happen.

A second-innings effort of 58 in Southampton against the strongest opposition he could face, his own teammates, on a wicket he said provided the “the hardest conditions possible”, was an entree ahead of the main course in Birmingham next week.

Warner didn’t have to be reminded that through 16 Test innings in England he has a best score off 85, his last effort in the 2015 series. But the now 32-year-old, who is set to confront more than just the English bowling attack when the Ashes starts on August 1 and the hostile home crowd puts a target on his back, said he couldn’t be more ready to climb that mountain.

Warner credited his time in club cricket last summer, as he served out his playing ban for the ball-tampering scandal, for developing his new-found ability to “scrap” for runs. He said being able to score 647 runs, with three hundreds, in the World Cup, showed he now had the determination to fight in conditions that will always be a challenge for him.

“When I look back and reflect on how I’ve played over here, [in 2015] I fought hard, in the first innings I think besides one dismissal I got some pretty good balls, and ... you’ve got to try to forget about that and don’t overthink it,” Warner said after his half-century at the Rose Bowl. “All I was focusing on (today was) making sure my feet and decision-making (were) on point.”

Just after lunch last night in Australia’s intra-squad match, Tasmanian Matthew Wade was out for seven as the Graeme Hick XII eased its way to 4-116 in pursuit of a victory target of 156.

Wade was caught behind off the bowling of Jon Holland after coming in at second drop for the Hick XII, which made 120 in its first innings in reply to the Brad Haddin XII’s innings of 105 and 170.

Cameron Bancroft impressed for the Hick XII with a patient half-century.