Australia and Pakistan begin psychological warfare tomorrow in the first of two NatWest Series encounters rendered meaningless before the teams meet in the final at Lord's on June 23.

England's run of defeats means that the remainder of the qualifying games are largely irrelevant although there will no doubt be some mind games played at Chester-le-Street tomorrow.

And Australian coach John Buchanan has hinted that there could be some experimentation from both sides.

"It is nice to be in the final. That being the case, there will be a little bit of room for some experimenting along the way - but certainly we want to keep the winning run going," he said.

"With the future in mind, it is important for us to continue to have a look at Pakistan. I dare say they will put on the field a couple of players who we have not seen before, so that will be useful."

He added: "There is the luxury of having got to the final, which means we can maybe look at one or two different things we would like to try.

"We may take a few more liberties than we would normally do. We will be trying to play our best cricket but we will also have an eye on the future."

Australia's renowned rotation system means tomorrow Glenn McGrath will be rested for the first time in the series, to be replaced by Brett Lee. Ricky Ponting is given a day off while Damien Fleming is back after a minor calf injury.

Waqar Younis, who has said he believes it is essential his team wins at least one of the two clashes with Australia before the final, has a fully fit squad to choose from – but offered no further clues as to who would be taking the field.

Australia: M Waugh, A Gilchrist (wkt), M Hayden, M Bevan, S Waugh (captain), D Martyn, A Symonds, S Warne, B Lee, J Gillespie, D Fleming.

Pakistan (from): Salim Elahi, Shahid Afridi, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdur Razzaq, Waqar Younis (captain), Rashid Latif (wkt), Saqlain Mushtaq, Younis Khan, Wasim Akram, Azhar Mahmood, Saeed Anwar.

© CricInfo Ltd.