Harris fights to regain his place

Ryan Harris rates Australia's pace battery well ahead of the equivalent set of fast men who came to England in 2013. The fact he may well be missing from the XI for the first Test in Cardiff is a fair indicator of why.

Over the past five years Harris has been near enough to an automatic inclusion for Australia's Test side provided he is fit, yet this time he may find himself held back for later in the series should the selectors Darren Lehmann and Rod Marsh deem it better to stick with the trio - Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood - who laid waste to West Indies.

It was for reasons of home and hearth rather than fitness which had Harris missing from the Caribbean, and while the birth of his first son Carter was an understandable delight, he admitted it had compelled him to give away the advantage of incumbency. Long hours in the gym and in the nets at the National Cricket Centre have Harris back close to his best, but he is no guarantee of taking the new ball for the first Investec Test due to the uniformly strong performances of his peers which he believes is advanced from two years ago.

"I think we're probably ahead," Harris said. "Mitchell Starc is bowling quicker. He was on that tour and played a couple of games, I think he's bowling a lot better than what he was then. He's bowling quicker and more accurately. Mitch wasn't there, we've got him. We're probably better placed I reckon, having Mitch back in. We're definitely a better unit.

"Where we are at the moment is what should happen in the Australian team. Everyone should be fighting for those spots. I haven't thought too much about it, I'm here to play five Tests, I want to play as much as I can, but the disadvantage of that is I missed a tour.

"It's about immediate performance. You never have credits, that's the way I look at it anyway. I wish you did, but you don't. Missing a tour, which was my doing, you give someone else an opportunity. I'm here to play five Tests, but all I want to try and do is show that I'm bowling well. If I'm not in that first Test side, it means someone else is bowling better and hopefully we're winning Test matches."

Two years ago, Harris was working his way back from injury, and the then brand new coach Lehmann deemed him to be unready for immediate Test match exposure. Another week of training in Nottingham proved fruitful, and from the first morning at Lord's Harris showed himself to be the most accomplished bowler on either side. This time around Lehmann has again spoken of Harris as "short of a gallop" and needing more to do.

"I think I'm pretty good, he's probably correct in saying that because I haven't played too many games," Harris said. "As much as I bowled in Brisbane on centre wickets, it's very hard to simulate match intensity. I feel like I'm going well, my knee's going to get sore here and there, that will always be the case, but my body itself feels really good. I don't feel like I've bowled many overs at all, which I haven't felt in a really long time.

"Usually after 15-odd overs or whatever I bowl I'm really sore, so it's just showing me how the work that I did over the last four months is really helping me, and the thing now is to keep my knee up and going. I'm confident I can do that, I've done enough of it now I know what to do.

"Very similar to 2013 actually. I had that Australia A tour, I played the Worcester game. Darren thought the same thing, he thought I was short of a gallop and he was right. I trained a bit more at Notts, something clicked there and I bowled really well at Lord's. Hopefully that doesn't happen this time, hopefully I'm playing the first Test.

"I worked really hard over those four months in Brisbane to get on this tour but also to get myself where I wanted to be and I'm seeing the rewards of that. It's just a matter now of putting the ball in the right spot enough times and to come out this morning and do what I did, I was really happy with that."

In Canterbury, Harris' first ball on the second day was a peach that singed the off bail of Joe Denly. However, he pressed a little too hard for effect after that, and went back to the team hotel feeling dissatisfied. After a quiet word with the assistant coach Craig McDermott, he found far better rhythm on the third day, as Sam Billings and Adam Ball found out to their discomfort.

"I wasn't very happy with my rhythm yesterday, had a chat to Craig McDermott last night about a few things, and came out this morning and felt really, really good. I probably just tried a little bit too hard yesterday, probably adrenaline from my first game for a while and searching for some wickets which I don't usually do, to come out this morning and grab a couple of wickets but more importantly find some rhythm was better."

All Harris can do now is bowl and bowl some more. Most important is his ability to cope with the pain of dealing with his problematic right knee. Even after extensive clean-out surgery in 2014 it is still a source of discomfort and the occasional instance of locking up, testing Harris' reserves of pain tolerance and earning him the admiration of many for pushing through those barriers.

"There's a bit of strapping on it," he said. "It still clicks and gets sore in spots but I know how to deal with that now. The thing is now I haven't been in a position playing a game where it gets sore. I have to build up that pain barrier again and get used to it. Last night it was quite sore and I came out this morning and bowled. So I'm doing that well and it's just a matter of getting used to that again. It's only going to get better."