Running the field

Clarke has the edge over Cook on the field and has been very astute with his field placings and awareness of when to attack, especially here with the Kookaburra ball. He realises there are times when he must let Johnson go and not worry about runs, but there have also been times, even on this tour, when England have been building a partnership, as when Joe Root and Kevin Pietersen were together in Adelaide, and Clarke brought Shane Watson on to dry it up.

Yes, he has funky fields, but there is more to him than that and he reads the game well. He can make errors, like last summer when he omitted to have a third man when Ian Bell was accumulating a lot of runs, but he has learned from that.

Cook is following the example of his predecessor Andrew Strauss in backing the discipline of his bowling attack and at times I think he does need to be a little more proactive and to have a Plan B. At Old Trafford last summer Cook barely looked beyond his four main bowlers, who lead themselves to an extent.

When you look at Australia in the field