England give clearest indication yet of who will bat at three in the Ashes after making big selection call for warm-up match

Ollie Pope will get the chance to nail down his Ashes first Test place after being handed the No 3 position in England’s warm-up match on Thursday.

Pope, recently replaced as England vice-captain, appeared in a dogfight with Jacob Bethell for the final top-six batting berth after passing 50 only once in his eight most recent Test innings.

However, following the first full training session of the Ashes tour at Lilac Hill on Tuesday, assistant coach Marcus Trescothick dwelt upon England’s consistency of selection over recent years.

When asked who would bat at first wicket down, Trescothick said: ‘I’m presuming the same sort of number three we’ve had for a period of time.

‘I can only say we are a very consistent team in what we’re trying to do. There’s no reason for me to take it any other way, but that is going to be the structure of what our batting line up will be.’

England take on England Lions in an unofficial three-day warm-up match from November 13, with those missing out on selection featuring for the Lions.

That means Bethell should feature at the top of the order for the opposition while Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Pope could be subjected to a new-ball attack of Mark Wood and Josh Tongue.

Wood is close to full fitness following nine months out with a knee injury while Tongue appears further down the pecking order than Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse.

England were also boosted in their two-and-a-half-hour training session by the sight of captain Ben Stokes, himself returning from a hamstring lay-off, bowling off his long run without any obvious issues.

Meanwhile, England’s support staff has expanded here with the addition of Kent coach Adam Hollioake on a temporary basis ahead of the first Test at Optus Stadium on November 21.

Sky Sports News presenter David Fulton, whose son is out in Perth playing grade cricket, has also been facilitating throw downs in the nets for England Lions players as the tourists maximise their resources.