Australia captain Tim Paine has confirmed fast bowler James Pattinson will not play in this week’s second Ashes Test at Lord’s in London.

Pattinson had not played Test cricket for three years prior to last week’s series opener at Edgbaston in Birmingham. He bowled 35 overs and took two wickets in that match, which Australia won, and will be rested this time.

‘We’re really happy with the group of fast bowlers we’ve got at the moment. We think in all conditions all of them can play a really important role in this series, but we’ve spoken to that group of bowlers about making sure that we have that core group of bowlers going forward for the next two to three years,’ said Paine.

‘They’re all quite young in age, and in James’ case in particular he’s come back off a really long lay-off, a really serious operation and we want to make sure he’s cherry ripe for the next three or four years.’

Pattinson will likely be replaced by fellow right-arm fast bowler Josh Hazlewood or left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc. Alternatively, seaming all-rounder Mitchell Marsh is also available.

‘What we’ve done in the past with James is got him back, we know how good he is, so we keep using him and keep bowling him and eventually he’s broken again,’ added Paine.

‘So we’re really lucky in the fact we’ve got two bowlers on the sidelines that are world class, and we want to make sure that James is absolutely cherry ripe every time he plays. He’s available for selection but we’ve decided to rest him for this game and make sure his long-term future is in really good shape.’

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