Selectors put the pressure on, here's how the players who made the cut responded
Australia's Ashes squad form guide
Australia's selectors have made clear that performance is king when it comes to making the Test team for this summer's Magellan Ashes.
Cameron Bancroft demanded his call-up based on a hot-streak of form, and while the other selections may not have apepeared as clear cut, they stood up to be counted when others did not.
Heading into what is set to be a hotly contested five-Test series, we take a closer look at the form guide of Australia's Test squad Statistics below represent numbers from the players' past 10 first-class matches, which includes a mixture of Test, tour match, Sheffield Shield, County cricket and Australia A games, depending on the player
Steve Smith
Age 28 State NSW
Runs: 1052 | 100s: 5 | 50s: 3 | Ave: 55.37 | HS: 178*
Australia's captain enters his first Ashes series as captain in some nice touch – as you would expect for the world's No.1 ranked Test batsman. Since Australia last played on home soil, Smith has been supreme, with three centuries in India despite Australia losing the series, and drawing with Bangladesh. He tuned up nicely with 127 against Western Australia in the JLT Sheffield Shield.
David Warner
Age 31 State NSW
Runs: 692 | 100s: 2 | 50s: 1 | Ave: 34.60 | HS: 123
Warner has not set the world alight in the Sheffield Shield, with 188 runs at 31.33 but the big stage of an Ashes contest will bring out the best of Australia's vice-captain. He is absolutely dominant on home turf and this winter shrugged off his subcontinental hoodoo with back-to-back centuries in Bangladesh. The 83 under Adelaide Oval lights against the pink ball in the Shield's first round will hold him in good stead come the second Test.
Cameron Bancroft
Age 24 State Western Australia
Runs: 1018 | 100s: 2 | 50s: 5 | Ave: 67.87 | HS: 228*
Australia's selectors heaped the pressure on for the opening three rounds of the Sheffield Shield and no batsman in the country stood up like Cameron Bancroft. He impressed with a knock of 76 not out, carrying his bat against NSW's Test-calibre attack, then backed it up with another 86 in the second innings. And if that wasn't enough, he backed it up in the third round against South Australia with an unbeaten 228. He has 442 runs at 110.5 in the three Shield rounds. A back-up wicketkeeper, his performance with the gloves for WA had him touted to take the mantle for Australia but his real strength lies at the top of the order. He underlined that ability to dig in and post big scores with another double century for Gloucestershire in County cricket this winter.
Usman Khawaja
Age 30 State Queensland
Runs: 1102 | 100s: 3 | 50s: 5 | Ave: 78.71 | HS: 157
Like Warner, Khawaja has been dominant on home turf, but he spent the winter in the Test wilderness with Australia in Asia where his record remains poor. Benched for the four-Test series in India, Khawaja was recalled for the first match in Bangladesh before being dropped again. He's responded like a man with a point to prove, lighting up the JLT One-Day Cup then the JLT Sheffield Shield. Refreshed, relaxed, and with a point to prove against England, a team against whom he has a poor track record, Khawaja is set for a big summer.
Peter Handscomb
Age 26 State Victoria
Runs: 599| 100s: 1 | 50s: 3 | Ave: 33.28 | HS: 101*
The last time Australia had an open race for Test spots following the capitulation against South Africa in Hobart, Peter Handscomb put his hand up with a double century for Victoria. From the six additions to the XI for last summer’s Adelaide Test, he is now the only one to still be playing for Australia. He's passed fifty just once in the Shield season, with 157 runs at 26.16, but his pedigree in the middle order runs deeper. He stood up for Australia's middle order across the winter in the subcontinent, with scores of 82 in Bangladesh and an unbeaten 72 in Ranchi that – along with Shaun Marsh, helps save a Test match for Australia. Against Pakistan last summer he scored 344 in five innings, averaging 114.66.
Shaun Marsh
Age 34 State Western Australia
Runs: 752 | 100s: 2 | 50s: 6 | Ave: 39.58 | HS: 110
On face value one of the more controversial selections, and Marsh's history of being in-and-out of the team has seen become a social media scapegoat at times. But Marsh has started the summer in red-hot form. He scored 412 in six innings of the JLT One-Day Cup to be the leading scorer, averaging 82.40. And against the red ball, he's passed fifty in each of WA's Shield games, including 91 against the Test attack in the game with NSW. He was dropped from Australia's Test team for the Bangladesh series, but against India he scored two fifties, including a Test-saving knock in Ranchi in partnership with Handscomb. A 23-Test veteran, Marsh comes back into the side with an understanding of what to expect from an Ashes cauldron.
Tim Paine
Age 32 State Tasmania
Runs: 306 | 100s: 0 | 50s: 2 | Ave: 20.40 | HS: 71*
Selectors declared the wicketkeeper position up for grabs, inviting Australia's glovemen to stand up and claim the position. Only Tim Paine did. With Matthew Wade horribly out of form and in the same state squad as Paine, he was parachuted into the Cricket Australia XI to face England's Test bowlers. Coming in at 4-47, Paine steadied the ship and added tough runs – a gritty 52 from 98 balls that impressed selectors not only for blunting England's best bowlers but also for standing up when the team was folding around him. Drafted back into Tasmania's squad with the state side struggling, Paine then capitalised on the opportunity to post an unbeaten 71 and seemed on track for a century until Tasmania declared in the hunt for a win. It may only be two key knocks but Paine scored runs where others did not. He's also put an unfortunate history of injury behind him and has long been regarded as a classy gloveman. It's been trendy on social media to point out the Australia coach has scored a more recent Shield century than Paine, and there's no escaping the raw data: it's true. But it's just as true that Paine, who began his professional cricket career as an opening batter, has two impressive scores from his past two matches when the chips where down.
Mitchell Starc
Age 27 State NSW
Wickets: 50 | Ave: 25.32 | Runs: 378 | 50s: 3 | Ave: 27
Arguably, the most in-form bowler in the world right now. If eight wickets with the pink ball against South Australia in the opening round didn't underline it, hat-tricks in back-to-back innings to mop up the Western Australia tail sure did. Has gone from strength to strength in Baggy Green.
Pat Cummins
Age 24 State NSW
Wickets: 34 | Ave: 26.32 | Runs: 290 | 50s: 1 | Ave: 41.43
The long-awaited home Test for Pat Cummins is nearly here. An injury to Starc earlier this year saw Cummins return to the Test team where he immediately impressed in India, bowling with pace and venom on the dead subcontinental pitches. He took six wickets in two Shield games and will be champing at the bit to be unleashed in Baggy Green on home soil. A better-than expected average with the bat was inflated by 82 not out in a 2015 Tour match in England, but don't underestimate Cummins' ability to swing the willow
Josh Hazlewood
Age 26 State NSW
Wickets: 36 | Ave: 22.58 | Runs: 83| Ave: 8.30
One Shield game, six wickets: Josh Hazlewood is ready, as he always is. A metronomic workhorse, he's returning from a side strain that curtailed his winter but enters the home summer fit and firing on all cylinders. Now a veteran of 31 Tests, the 15 home matches has seen him claim 65 wickets at an average of 25.35. The perfect foil to the wild horsemen of Starc and Cummins. Wickets in his past 10 first-class matches are down on what you might expect, but here is a case of numbers not telling the full story, particularly with a winter spent playing Tests in Asia. He makes bowlers at the other end better and can often create wickets for teammates, much like how Ryan Harris helped Mitchell Johnson in the famed 2013-14 series.
Nathan Lyon
Age 29 State NSW
Wickets: 42| Ave: 24.71 | Runs: 52 | Ave: 3.71
For the first time in memory, Nathan Lyon enters a home summer without questions about his place in the Test side in the media headlines. Even before Australia's pace stocks were dwindled Lyon's place was assured, and Australia's greatest off-spin bowler of all time really came into his own across the winter tours of India and Bangladesh. The turning point came last summer in Adelaide where a late burst turned the match and he hasn't looked back. Nine wickets in the three Shield games at 23.22, Lyon enters the summer full of confidence.
Jackson Bird
Age 30 State Tasmania
Wickets: 43 | Ave: 27.00 | Runs: 215 | Ave: 23.89
On the fringe of Test selection, Bird is next man in should injury strike Australia's front-line pace attack. It's a position he's entirely comfortable with – it'd be hard to argue otherwise – and Bird continues to put up the numbers that keep him in the conversation. Ten wickets in two Shield games before he was pulled to train alongside the front-line trio, they came at an average of 22.80.
Chadd Sayers
Age 30 State South Australia
Wickets: 55 | Ave: 19.69 | Runs: 180 | Ave: 15.00
Taking the wicket of the Australia captain certainly isn't going to hurt your chances, and Sayers gave the skipper and selector-on-duty Darren Lehmann a first-hand reminder of his prowess with the swinging ball in the Shield's first round. He has 14 wickets from three Shield games – following on from the record-breaking 62 he took last season – and has been rewarded with a spot in the squad with an eye towards the second Test where he could vault into contention to be Australia's 452nd Test cricketer.
Past 10 first-class matches
Image Id: 62D365878E9B40C7A7C71FF9B64F0D5FAustralia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird, Chadd Sayers.
England Test squad: Joe Root (c), James Anderson (vc), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Mason Crane, Tom Curran, Ben Foakes, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Chris Woakes.
2017-18 International Fixtures
Magellan Ashes Series
First Test Gabba, November 23-27. Buy tickets
Second Test Adelaide Oval, December 2-6 (Day-Night). Buy tickets
Third Test WACA Ground, December 14-18. Buy tickets
Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30. Buy tickets
Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test). Buy tickets
ODI Series v England
First ODI MCG, January 14. Buy tickets
Second ODI Gabba, January 19. Buy tickets
Third ODI SCG, January 21. Buy tickets
Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Buy tickets
Fifth ODI Perth TBC, January 28. Join the ACF
Prime Minister's XI
PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Buy tickets
T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series
First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Buy tickets
Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Buy tickets
Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Buy tickets
Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 14
Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16
Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18
Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21