October 24 Thursday 2002
England's Vaughan is McGrath's Ashes target

SYDNEY: Australian pace spearhead Glenn McGrath has targeted in-form English opener Michael Vaughan as his prize scalp in the absence of the retired Michael Atherton.

McGrath arrived home on Wednesday after Australia's 3-0 series whitewash of Pakistan in Colombo and Sharjah and zeroed in on Vaughan with the Ashes series just a fortnight away. The latest member of the 400-wicket club targets a key opposition batsman in every series and he nominated Vaughan as the England batsman he'd attempt to unhinge.

Vaughan goes into the Ashes series as England's best batsman on form. During this year's series against Sri Lanka and India, he made four centuries, taking his average to 47.5 after 23 matches.

"He's obviously their form player if you look at the last season," McGrath said of Vaughan. "But he hasn't really got the form on the board against Australia, so we'll see how he goes."

Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick have formed a quality opening combination since coming together earlier this year.

"I have had quite a lot of success in the past against guys I want to target," McGrath said. "Obviously, Vaughan and Trescothick are their form players. I've only really come up against Vaughan in two matches. One was for Worcester and I bowled one ball to him there and he hit me up in the air and was caught.

"The other one I didn't get a chance to bowl to him because Jason (Gillespie) knocked him over for a duck." McGrath will also enter the Ashes series, which begins in Brisbane on November 7, in good touch after capturing 14 wickets at an average 10.86 in the series win over Pakistan. 

He'll spearhead a bowling attack boasting plenty of strikepower, with injured Gillespie expected to return for the first Test and Andy Bichel and Brett Lee contending for the third fast bowling spot.

McGrath backed the retention of besieged batsman Mark Waugh, whose position is again under the spotlight after averaging only 20.00 against Pakistan. "To me Mark Waugh is a legend of the game and it would be great to see him go out on his terms. I think he's a match-winner in the slips. There's a lot of pressure on him. 

He's a class player and it would be great for him and the team to turn around and score plenty of runs. "Ideally at the end of the day he's got to be scoring runs as well." But there was no such generosity towards the English, who'll enter the five-Test series as underdogs. "I think at the end of the day if Australia play as well as we can there's not many teams that will beat us. We've played some very good cricket over the last month so hopefully that can continue in the Ashes series."