Jones determined to prove more than just a fast bowler

After a week of cricket they would rather forget and with the first Test against Australia 10 days away it is time for England to get serious. The poor form they have shown, and the criticism they have received so far, will be viewed as nothing more than acclimatisation problems if they can put in a good performance against Western Australia over the next three days.

Getting out of this rut will not be easy against a strong WA side which, captained by the Australian opener Justin Langer, will be determined to keep the tourists' confidence levels down. Another indifferent show by Nasser Hussain's side, though, will see the pressure on them grow at a similar, but indirect rate as their chances of winning in Brisbane.

Nobody will be more aware of the importance of this match than Hussain and the England coach Duncan Fletcher. With not one player in the 16-man squad yet in consistent form they will want to give the players whom they consider will play against Australia on 7 November the chance of playing as much as they can.

Injury will still keep Darren Gough, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff on the sidelines, but England must otherwise play their Test team. In looking for a replacement for Gough, whose chances of playing in the first Test must be slim, Steve Harmison was given the early chance to impress. But after wayward displays during England's first two warm-up games – he bowled 16 wides in the first match at Lilac Hill – Simon Jones now looks set to be given the opportunity to show what he has got.

Harmison owed his chance last summer to the fact that Jones strained a side on his Test debut against India at Lord's, and the Glamorgan fast bowler has hardly played a game since. But, after having had two cortisone injections in the injury to his left side, the 23-year-old Welshman is raring to go.

"It has been very frustrating not to play," he said. "The injury has stuck around longer than I expected, but because I came back too early the first time I have looked to build things up slowly this time. I bowled for 40 minutes in the nets on Saturday and consider myself fully fit now."

Strong and athletic, Jones is the sort of bowler England need to come through in the next year or so, with Gough and Andrew Caddick coming to the end of their careers. He is capable of bowling as fast as anyone in the world – he was timed at 91.7mph during the summer – but he also realises that pace is not everything.

"You have to bowl a slightly different line and length over here," he said. "The wickets are so true that if you don't get the ball in the right area you go for runs. You need to be very disciplined and patient. In the end you find out where you are in the Test arena when you play over here and if you do well it is an achievement.

"These pressures are part of the job and they along with the crowd are things I have to learn to live with."

Bowling at the WACA, on what was once regarded as the quickest pitch in the world, will help, but, with England supporters hoping that he and Harmison will make the Australian batsmen hop about, expectations are high.

With Flintoff rehabilitating in Adelaide, Craig White should also get a chance to make the most of a team-mates misfortune. After being omitted from the original squad, the Yorkshire all-rounder has been playing Grade cricket in Adelaide. He scored a hundred the weekend before last, and his batting would give England's side a balance that is lacking when Flintoff is absent.