The China Mail - England's Archer in 'happy place', Wood 'full of energy' ahead of Ashes

That's the view of strapping fellow paceman Brydon Carse who is one of six speedsters in the tourists' squad vying to be in the XI for the first Test starting in Perth on Friday.

Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, and Josh Tongue are the others.

"Look, it's exciting," South African-born Carse said after England's only warm-up game against a second-tier England Lions ended on Saturday.

"I think we've got a group of six bowlers who, whatever dynamic we go with, we're relishing those conditions."

England are yet to decide whether they go with an all-out pace attack at Perth Stadium where the wicket is renowned as fast and bouncy, or include a spinner.

During the three-day warm-up, specialist spinner Shoaib Bashir played for the Lions with part-timer Joe Root bowling 14.5 overs to take the pressure off the frontline quicks.

Injury-prone Archer is firming for selection after making it through the warm-up unscathed, while Wood was cleared of any major issues after complaining of hamstring stiffness on day one.

"He's really confident going into the series, I think he's in a happy place where his body's at and his cricket," Carse said of Archer who is two Tests into his comeback after four years of fitness setbacks.

"It's just so good to have him fully fit and around the group.

"He's obviously got that X-factor, and he's shown that around the world. So it's very exciting that he's in our bowling line-up."

Carse also said Wood was in high spirits after his injury scare.

"He's obviously received that positive news. So he's all up and about and full of energy at the moment," Carse said.

"He's got a huge amount of resilience,

"You look back at some of the setbacks that he's had over his career, to keep coming out and keep going through the processes to get back out on the field, it's very exciting, and it shows the sort of character that he has."

A battered Australia head into the Test without injured pace spearheads Pat Cummins (back) and Josh Hazlewood (hamstring).

Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and spinner Nathan Lyon are set to lead the weakened attack with Brendan Doggett looking likely to make his debut.

J.Thompson--ThChM