Gloucester have confirmed a fixture against Australia at Kingsholm on November 3.

It will launch the Wallabies’ United Kingdom leg of their upcoming tour, which also includes appointments with England and Wales.

Gloucester managing director Ken Nottage said: “I am absolutely delighted to be able to announce the visit of the Australian national team to Kingsholm.

“Everyone at Gloucester is working hard to establish Kingsholm as one of the premier rugby venues in Europe.

“We have been fortunate enough to stage Under-20 internationals, a European Challenge Cup final, the Barbarians versus Ireland and are among the proposed venues for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

“Welcoming a team of the stature of Australia to Kingsholm further boosts our credentials in this respect, and we are all looking forward to this fixture hugely.”

Ricky Ponting returns to lead Australia on Saturday, knowing he gets an immediate chance to exact revenge on England.

Ponting, 34, was granted a fortnight rest period following the 2-1 Ashes Test series loss - and his colleagues opened up a 3-0 NatWest Series lead in his absence.

They need to win only one of the final four matches, to seal the series - ironically thanks to the form of Cameron White, the man deputising for Ponting at number three in the order.

“Cameron’s played really well”

Twenty-six-year-old White has scored 200 runs in three innings, including a maiden one-day international hundred in the floodlit win at the Rose Bowl in midweek, and is now expected to switch to number seven.

“I might have to take someone down at training to get myself back into the side,” joked Ponting.

“Cameron’s played really well. I’ve been impressed with how he’s played in all three innings. I thought the way he controlled the innings for us the other night and his own innings was very good.

“He’s been in and around the side for a few years and been waiting for an opportunity to bat a little bit higher up the order.

“I think he showed us all over the last couple of weeks he’s more than capable of batting anywhere in the order - and that’s a real ‘positive’ for us and makes selections for Saturday’s game a little more difficult.”

Australia have now won 10 of their last 13 one-day internationals against England - although Ponting has observed from afar that, as in the Test campaign, there appears to be little between the teams.

“Clarke has done a good job captaining the side”

“The results have been one-sided, but the games have been closer than the results indicate,” he said.

“One-day cricket is a bit like that - the team that just grabs an opportunity when it comes up quite often goes on and wins games. They are probably a little bit more unsettled than we are at the moment.

“There’s a number of reasons why - we’ve played good cricket, and Michael Clarke has done a good job captaining the side.”

Ponting is certainly in better spirits than when he returned home in the immediate aftermath of that Ashes defeat.

“The reaction was pretty much what I expected,” he reported. “I don’t think there was anything that really shocked me too much about the way things were back in Australia.

“I think everybody in Australia really appreciated how good a series it was and how tight a contest it was through the whole series.

“For me it was all about clearing my mind and making sure that when I got back here I was ready to play well again.

“I feel terrific; I’ve had a few good sleeps over the last couple of nights, so I’ll be up nice and early and ready to go in the game.”

Australia also have a significant date at Lord’s next year, with one of the two neutral Tests against Pakistan scheduled for headquarters.

“This is one of the great places in the world to play Test cricket,” said Ponting.

“We’ve had a great time over here this tour and we are looking forward to playing Pakistan here in 10 months’ time. It will be enjoyable.

“It’s very significant for them (Pakistan). I’m sure they’d rather be playing here than not playing at all. That’s exactly the way we feel about it as well.

“Pakistan at the moment is obviously a fairly difficult place to tour for a number of reasons - and I think to be able to play Pakistan in neutral venues is something that’s going to be great for the game.”

David Warner is looking to use the second T20 international against England to press his claims for inclusion in the 50-over side.

Australia opener David Warner is looking to use today’s second Twenty20 international against England to press his claims for inclusion in the 50-over side.

The 22-year-old New South Welshman burst onto the international scene in January when he blasted 89 off 64 balls against South Africa in Melbourne.

He was promptly elevated to the one-day side, but after averaging just 15 from seven ODIs was not included for the upcoming seven-match series against England.

As a result he has had to console himself with the odd Twenty20 international, and admits it is something he would like to change with a busy one-day international schedule ahead.

“I’ve got this next game tomorrow and if I can put some numbers together then there’s the Champions League followed by an Indian tour over there,” he said.

“If I can get some good totals and keep pressing claims I can make sure my name is up there in the list if any injuries come along.

“If I keep scoring runs things might happen for me.”

Warner will fly back to Australia after today’s Twenty20 international where he will join up with NSW for their upcoming domestic season.

Ironically, however, he may not even be assured of playing in their first XI with the Blues boasting Australia openers Simon Katich, Shane Watson, Phil Hughes and former Test player Phil Jaques.

Optimistic

Warner may therefore find himself going from Australia to club cricket, but regardless he remains optimistic of pushing for a greater role with the national side.

“We have a very good and young team at NSW and its going to be hard one to crack, but all I can do is keep scoring runs and the rest will take care of itself,” he said.

“I’m in the Twenty20 and still playing for my country.

“It’s still a thrill for myself, but I’ve got to work hard.

“You can’t go from the top of log and stay there for the rest of your career. There will be setbacks, this is one of them and its another challenge for me to raise the bar for the season coming with New South Wales.

“I will go back to NSW and help them as much as I can and try and get some runs personally to get back in the (Australian) one-day team.”

Stuart Broad can expect massive sums after his Ashes exploits but the man himself is interested in a different type of figures.

All-rounder Broad’s role in England’s 2-1 victory over Australia led to estimations of £2million in sponsorship deals alone will follow.

However, Broad, 23, is more concerned with career statistics, by virtue of runs and wickets, than the number of noughts on cheques.

Speaking at the England team hotel in London, in the aftermath of the 197-run series-sealing win at the Oval, Nottinghamshire’s Broad said: “You have got to make runs and take wickets and perform for England for other things to happen to you.

“They are certainly not a primary vision of mine; I want to play 100 Test matches for England, I want to be the highest one-day wicket-taker for England but more importantly I want to win World Cups for England and Ashes series in Australia.

“I want to make England the best team in the world and that prospect is the thing that really excites me the most and makes me want to get out of bed every day when I have bowled 30 overs the day before.”

Broad’s five for 37 on Friday afternoon set up the fifth npower Test win and boosted a series return which appeared fallow midway through.

He finished the campaign as England’s leading wicket-taker with 18, and allied to his two half-centuries, meant he was one of the team’s most prolific performers.

He is also on course to reach his career target of averaging above 30 with the bat and below it with the ball - his current returns are 30.68 and 35.78 respectively.

“I am not massively stats driven but stats don’t lie,” Broad said. “Anyone in international cricket with a bowling average of under 30 is doing fantastically well.

“You see the likes of Dale Steyn, and people like this, who are down at about 21.

“If I could have a bowling average of under 30 and a batting average over 30 I would be a very happy boy.

“But I have got a lot of hard work to do because if my batting average is to stay near 30 I have got to start scoring 100s.

“In the next couple months I am looking to develop my batting. It is a mindset because I believe I can do it.

“As soon as I get to 30 I start thinking ‘right where can I hit this ball’ rather than a batsmen who thinks ‘right I’ve got to 30 let’s go and get 70 and 80′. That is the mindset that I can change.

“At certain stages in this series I have played my shots and it has come off for me.

“But I have also had chances were I could have gone on and played a really telling score and that is my next vision.”

The events of the past 72 hours have cast Broad as a potential poster boy for a new generation of English sport, particularly given the passing of Andrew Flintoff from Test cricket.

Having slayed Australia in such a high-profile contest, his life has unquestionably changed from just a week ago.

“I’ve not been aware of what’s been happening,” he said. “It has been a tough couple of days and I have barely left my room - it has been room service, sleeping and playing cricket.

“I’ve not been aware of extra attention but that is something that is out of my control anyway.

“It is an exciting time. I have got some very good people around me. My old man has experienced winning an Ashes and been successful and my mum is a very grounded person and if I ever put a foot out of place she would tell me.”

He added: “I haven’t got the body to be posing in my underwear like David Beckham.

“I think whenever you play international sport it is quite high pressured and there is a lot going on.

“I have dealt with that well in the last couple of years and I don’t think that will change.

“I am focused on my training and having grown up in a sporting family, that is something I have always been used to.

“My dad has always said that cricket comes first. If you get your runs and wickets then everything else will take care of itself.”

Reality will hit home for Broad tomorrow as one of six of the successful Oval XI who fly to Belfast for Thursday’s one-day international against Ireland.

Andrew Flintoff needed two more injections and has been sleeping with an ice-pack around his right knee.

All the evidence suggests that the medical treatment is working and that the all-rounder will be ready to build on his man-of-the-match performance at Lord’s by taking on Australia again at Edgbaston in the third Test starting on Thursday.

An England team spokesman said that Flintoff was given a jab last Friday to lubricate his troublesome knee and received another dose of cortisone in the same area two days ago, ‘The Times’ reported.

Flintoff, who needed three injections before Lord’s, has also been wearing through the night a high-tech knee compression that is attached via tubing to a machine by his bedside that pumps water and ice around the joint to aid recovery.

“It gets in the way a little bit,” Flintoff said. “After the Lord’s Test my knee was a bit sore, but I have been icing it and getting treatment from Dave Roberts (the Lancashire physiotherapist). I bowled in some discomfort at Lord’s, but I still sent down my overs and got through.”

Although Flintoff sat out the game of football that precedes every practice, he was close to full pace on Tuesday when he bowled on the outfield afterwards under the supervision of Kirk Russell, the England physiotherapist.

Flintoff subsequently batted and bowled in the nets with a belt-and-braces approach to his knee, which was heavily strapped with crepe bandaging beneath a standard elasticated support.

England captain Andrew Strauss says Australia have lost their previous aura and opposition teams are no longer in awe of them.

England are 1-0 ahead in the series after the heroics of Andrew Flintoff at Lord’s last week and are imbued with the belief that the Ashes can be regained this summer.

Strauss admitted that in previous series, even when England were in strong positions, the fear of Australia’s experienced match-winners meant they never felt truly comfortable.

“I don’t think this Australian side has an aura about it,” Strauss was quoted as saying in the ‘Daily Telegraph’. “We didn’t think so even before the series started.

“Not to be disrespectful, they still have some great players. The aura came from players like Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist.

“A lot of the guys in this team are at the start of their Test careers and necessarily don’t have an aura yet.

“Playing Australia now feels like playing any other Test team.”