Hollioake bolsters England

VB Series, Melbourne: Australia v England
Commentary from 0315GMT on BBC Five Live Sports Extra

Adam Hollioake could be thrown straight into Sunday's one-day international against Australia having joined up with the England team in Melbourne.

The Surrey captain received his first international call-up in four years after all-rounder Andrew Flintoff failed to regain fitness after hernia surgery.

And, after the tourists suffered a seven-wicket loss to Australia in Friday's VB Series opener, Hollioake could be part of captain Nasser Hussain's "new plan".

I've gone back to enjoying it again and playing a few shots

Adam Hollioake

Hollioake' medium pace could be part of a plan of containment against Australia's openers after James Kirtley and Andrew Caddick allowed 101 runs in the first 14 overs.

And, with 606 runs in 35 ODIs to date, Hollioake could also add beef to the middle order batting.

Hollioake admitted that he would probably not be back in the side had his brother Ben not tragically been killed in a car accident last March, saying that his mental approach had changed.

"I just go out there and play and if I get nought for 100 and a duck well, so be it, that's life. I'm not going to lose one minute's sleep," he explained.

Feature: Hollioake's new approach

Australia will doubtless be losing little sleep over a side that has barely troubled them in four matches in all forms of the game so far on this tour.

The only chink in the armour is the performance of all-rounder Shane Watson, who managed just three overs on Friday, conceding 25 runs.

Watson's pace bowling will be more heavily relied upon in Melbourne than in spin-friendly Sydney, where left-armer Darren Lehmann took three wickets.

But Australia captain Ricky Ponting gave ringing support for his fellow Tasmanian, saying he expected Watson to be in the 15-man squad for the World Cup in February.

"I think he's still improving and he'll keep improving, that's the sort of guy and player he is," Ponting went on.

"It was disappointing yesterday for me not to give him a bit more of a bowl.

"Let's hope tomorrow he gets more of a chance."

Ponting added that Australia were still capable of improvement.

The tourists dropped a couple of sharp chances in the field, and Adam Gilchrist missed a stumping off Lehmann.

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England (from): N Hussain (capt), NV Knight, ME Trescothick, RC Irani, OA Shah, ID Blackwell , C White, AJ Stewart (wkt), AJ Hollioake , GJ Batty, AR Caddick, RJ Kirtley , PD Collingwood, SJ Harmison, JM Anderson

Australia (from): RT Ponting (capt), ML Hayden, AC Gilchrist (wkt), DR Martyn, MG Bevan, DS Lehmann, SR Watson, SK Warne, B Lee, JN Gillespie, GD McGrath, AJ Bichel

Umpires: SA Bucknor (WI) & S Taufel 3rd Umpire: S Davis Match referee: Wasim Raja (Pak)