As I write we are just two days from the First Test here in Birmingham.

We all feel for Justin Langer as he has made way for Damien Martyn in he First Test line-up. He certainly has the grit and determination to bounce back. The flip side to that is we are delighted for "Marto" who is getting the opportunity to play the Test.

Personally, I am feeling great. I have been working really hard on my fitness and bowling and am looking forward to what should be a fantastic Test Match up here at Edgbaston.

Early in the tour I had a bit of hamstring trouble, which caused to me to miss some of the early One-Day Internationals. This was particularly frustrating because it was very minor problem, but one that could have got quite a bit worse if I did not look after it properly.

Having to miss a couple of games because of it was disappointing but has proved to be the right decision.

It was nice to bowl out England for 86 in the day-nighter at Old Trafford.

It has certainly given the England side something to think about leading up to the Ashes, although we did have the best of the conditions by bowling at night. The match in itself was a good all round effort considering it wasn't by any means easy to make seven for 208, but 'Bevo', Steve Waugh and 'Marto' all played really well and helped to set England a tough target in the damp evening conditions.

The one-day final victory at Lords was extremely satisfying. The bowling of Ian Harvey and Brett Lee was fantastic. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were their usual brilliant selves and all the boys were switched on in the field with some sharp fielding and run out opportunities.

It gave our batters a relatively easy target to reach on a great wicket. The day was slightly marred by a member of the crowd throwing a beer can and hitting Michael Bevan on the cheek. He was lucky not to be seriously injured. These incidents should not happen and something needs to be done before someone is seriously hurt.

As far as the two three day matches leading up to the First Test are concerned, the MCC game at the picturesque Arundel Castle was a good chance for the lads to have a sharp hit out against a strong side.

Simon Katich's 168 was certainly the highlight and all the bowlers had a good bowl.

The Essex game at Chelmsford ended in a draw with us opting to have batting practice over winning the cricket match. Our captain 'Gilly' copped a bit of flack about it but he did want to give all the bowlers as well as the batters a hit. Glenn, Brett and myself were asked by the skipper if we wanted another trundle and we all told him that we felt that we had had a good hit out in the first innings. So Adam cannot be held to blame for us batting the whole of the final day of the match.

In between the tour matches, 'Flemmo', Glenn and I went to the footy show in London to watch and because Ian Botham was stuck on the motorway, we had to go on stage!

We got through that no problem and then watched the show from a balcony and we were pulling faces at 'Warney' who was on the panel on stage.

There was a party afterwards at the Sports Cafe in London which we stayed at for a couple of hours mixing with all the footy show lads and heaps of expat Aussies. It proved to be a great afternoon.

AFL wise we are all following the season pretty closely, unfortunately my Western Bulldogs went down to Carlton on the weekend but that has happened to plenty of sides at Optus Oval before and I am sure the Bullies will bounce back.

All in all I am really looking forward to the start of the series and hopefully we can go one up heading to Lords.

© CricInfo