Richard Dawson, the former England and Yorkshire off-spinner writes exclusively for The Northern Echo.

The lads are up against it again. Australia are desperate to beat us 5-0 but we've still got every chance of stopping that.

No-one wants to be on the wrong end of a whitewash but the lads have got to keep on plugging away.

It's never easy at the MCG, which is a sporting Coliseum.

There are the best part of 100,000 people out there baying for English blood but playing in that arena is a massive thrill - it's been the biggest of my career.

I know first-hand how intimidating the MCG is and the Aussie crowd were always going to get stuck into the England lads after what has happened so far.

Last time we were in Melbourne Justin Langer got a huge double hundred so I know how they must have felt when Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds were going at full throttle.

Michael Vaughan got a big hundred in reply but the damage had already been done when they got a huge first-innings score. Let's hope the same thing isn't happening again here.

We were 3-0 down on the last tour and Hayden top-edged the first ball of the match over Steve Harmison's head for four and from then on the crowd gave it to us all day.

The lads have got to cope with that but I'm sure they will be used to it from the first three Tests and they will be relishing this challenge.

The series might be gone but there's a lot to play for. All of the supporters will be desperate for something to cheer but there's a lot of pride up for grabs and players playing for their places.

One of those key selection issues is at wicketkeeper.

I wasn't surprised to see Chris Read come in for Geraint Jones and he's stepped up to the plate with four catches already.

I don't think his inclusion came as a massive shock to any of us and that's the only change I would have made.

For me, Read has nothing to prove and he should have started the series. He got runs against Pakistan in the summer and it was a big surprise to me when he was dropped again. If he is given a good run in the side, he won't let anyone down.

I know Shane Warne got him out in the first innings but Read is a wonderful player of spin bowling and I hope he goes on to get a few runs in the second.

If he can do that, the pressure on Duncan Fletcher might just crank up another notch or two for leaving him out in the first place.