McGrath and Warne miss tour game

Australia have rested five of their big guns for the second-Test warm-up against Worcestershire, but rain threatens to curtail the traditional Ashes tour fixture. Bad weather has forced the cancellation of the side's final training session at the New Road ground and it is predicted to continue through the three-day match.

Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Shane Warne have been rested after their success in the first Test at Lord's, while Adam Gilchrist and Damien Martyn also have free time this weekend. The five will be replaced by the non-Test members, with Brad Hodge and Shaun Tait getting their first matches of the tour. Brad Haddin, whose only game was against Somerset, will stand-in behind the stumps and Michael Kasprowicz and Stuart MacGill will step into an attack led by the struggling Jason Gillespie.

Worcestershire, who were the traditional opponents for the opening contest of an Ashes tour, have the international bowlers Shoaib Akhtar, Gareth Batty, Kabir Ali and Ray Price in their squad, but Shoaib has already been ruled out with injury. The game is due to start tomorrow.

The Australian XI Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting (capt), Simon Katich, Brad Hodge, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin (wk), Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz, Shaun Tait and Stuart MacGill.

Worcestershire Vikram Solanki (capt), Stephen Moore, Stephen Peters, Graeme Hick, Ben Smith, Zander de Bruyn, Gareth Batty, Kabir Ali, James Pipe, Matt Mason, Nadeem Malik, Ray Price (12th man to be named).