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RUTHLESS Australia will attempt to win two Test matches for the price of one in Adelaide.
Behind the overwhelming priority of winning here lies the significant subplot of trying to leave England's drained bowling attack so broken that they fire like damp water pistols in the Perth Test which starts just four days later.
It's why Alastair Cook is already trying to conserve the energy of his quicks and why Michael Clarke should be no certainly of enforcing the follow on if England go belly up for a small total on Saturday.
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The more torture Australia inflicts on England's bowlers in this Test the more they will be softened up for Perth where robust seamer Tim Bresnan appears certain to make his first appearance of the series for England.
This series has been a shuddering case of Broad or bust for England. The excellent Stuart Broad (11 wickets at 21) has taken more wickets that all of his team-mates put together (10 wickets at 88). The spinners have been destroyed, the seamers, Broad apart, ground to dust.
The lack of pace of England's bowlers was highlighted when Mitchell Johnson's first over contained the fastest six balls of the match including a 152.8kph thunderbolt.
Jimmy Anderson, in his last over in the Australian innings, did not break 130kph.
COOK'S TOUR
TAKE out the captain, take out the team.
It was often the mantra of Australian teams of recent halcyon generations and the theme could rise again this tour.
After almost two days in the field Alastair Cook looked as tired as he deserved to be in his brief innings of three before his stumps were rattled by a ball from Johnson which he missed by a mile.
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Cook has not made a score above his Brisbane Test 65 in his last 13 Test innings against Australia and his demise is a victory for team strategists who ordered bowlers not to bowl short and wide to him and feed the cuts, pulls and flicks off the hips which three years ago destroyed Australia on home soil.
Like several other English captains he found his batting form soared to fresh heights when he took the job but before the stress of the post ground him down.
BUCK THE TREND
The admirable Chris Rogers is unsure how long his Test career will stretch for and at age 36 you can understand the anguish.
Here's our tip. Unless he goes terribly in the back half of the Ashes and be taken to South Africa for three heavy-duty end of season Tests which will be no place for blooding a rookie.
But, unless he goes brilliantly in South Africa, that might well be the end of the road because Australia's planning for the next Ashes series just two years away will start in earnest after that series.
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DOUG'S PARTY
DOUG BOLLINGER has returned to the scene of the Test match which brutally truncated his international career.
Bollinger was scheduled to join the Australian team in camp in Adelaide last night and he, or Nathan Coulter-Nile will replace any fast bowler who feels the pinch in this Test for Perth.
Bollinger's last Test for Australia was, by chance, three years ago in Adelaide against England when captain Ricky Ponting claimed "Dougie hit the wall'' in a damning statement about Bollinger's fitness.
Australia never forgave him and have not chosen him since despite his Test record standing up most impressively against many chosen ahead of him.
The Perth Test could offer a welcome chance to reshape his career.
Jimmy Anderson had little impact on Australia's first innings. AFP PHOTO / Saeed KHAN Source: AFP
THAT HURT
JOE ROOT's dropped chance at midwicket off Michael Clarke when the skipper was 18 hurt England deeply but others have suffer greater pain.
The record for the costliest drop in cricket is held by former Durham keeper Chris Scott who grassed Brian Lara on 18 in a match against Warwickshire in 1994 before claiming "I suppose he will get 100 now.''
And a few more. Lara made 501 - the highest score in first class history.
OVER THE TOP
IN old Ashes highlights the sight of a player hitting a six is greeted with bewildered looks from players and fans as if a UFO has landed on the ground.
Not any more. Big hitting in all forms of the game has desensitised the impact.
The 12 sixes Australia hit in the first two days was the record for an Ashes innings.
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