With the Ashes action switching to Adelaide, Somerset all rounder Ian Blackwell who is in Australia with the England Academy finds himself in the thick of things.

`Blackie' told me: "The second Test is here and things are reaching fever pitch. The press are predicting another easy victory for Australia and are debating who should play either Lee or Bichel!"

Before the Test gets underway `Blackie' will be linking up with his Somerset team mates who are in the England squad. He continued: "We are actually netting with the test squad tomorrow so I will be meeting up with Caddy and Banger for the first time then."

Regarding his own progress at the Academy he told me: "Things have been going OK for me. I rolled my ankle and was out of action for a couple of days but thankfully I am back to it now. We have been practicing different drills, using feet to spinners and also practicing playing the short ball!"

He continued: "I'm into my last week at the Academy and then I join the one day squad next Tuesday. It's quite fortunate for me because the one day squad are based in Adelaide for the first week and will play games against the Academy on the 2nd and 3rd of December."

He went on: "Looking forward to things kicking off, these five weeks at the Academy have been enjoyable and hard but I need to start playing again. I have been practicing hard at my spin with the former Aussie Test star Ashley Mallet and I feel things have improved quite a lot and I am keen to put this into practice."

`Blackie' concluded: " We travel to Sydney on December 3rd for about 5 days and then go to Canberra for a while. From there we travel all over the place and kick off the one day series on December 13th against Australia in Sydney."

© SOMERSET