KEY POINTS:
If top-order wickets and venue form count as currency, then Shaun Tait has a rich chance of breaking into the Australian team for the second Ashes cricket test at Adelaide, starting Friday.
Trouble is there's a group of bowlers ahead of him who banked their position during Australia's steamrolling 277-run win in the first test at the Gabba.
Tait yesterday played down his chances of being involved in a hometown Ashes test despite him being included in a 13-man squad, along with Queensland quick Mitchell Johnson.
Johnson eliminated Tait from the running in Brisbane, before he lost out to Stuart Clark.
But the South Australian slinger boasts some impressive credentials which would make him dangerous at the Adelaide Oval, namely pace, swing and sharp bounce, and a fine ground record of five wickets every Pura Cup match.
Those wickets have come at 22.96 runs a scalp on what is usually a good place to bat.
His ability to strike early would worry England, which fell victim to Tait's 3-21 in the tour opener in Canberra and then lost Andrew Strauss to an inswinger early during the recent tour match in Adelaide.
Tait also has the knack of swinging the ball - both ways - in dry, hot conditions and on an abrasive pitch, which is the forecast in Adelaide over the next week.
Few bowlers in Australia can make the ball reverse better than the 23-year-old.
"It can be sometimes," Tait said when asked if reverse swing would be a factor this time.
"Last game (the tour match) it didn't work too well for us.
"But there's been a number of occasions in Adelaide with the Redbacks where I've got the ball to reverse quite well and it's been pretty dangerous later on in the batting."
After two tests in England in 2005, where he copped some "tap" from the opposition while trying to bowl too fast, Tait said nothing would beat playing his first test in Australia at home and against the old enemy.
"That would be the best thing for me in cricket in my whole career," he said.
Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Shaun Tait, Shane Warne.
- AAP
