Gillespie and MacGill unlikely to bowl again at the WACA

Australia are likely to have to do without the services of Jason Gillespie and Stuart MacGill for the rest of the first Test against Zimbabwe, according to John Buchanan, the Australian coach. Both players were forced to leave the field during the last session at Perth, Gillespie with a side strain and MacGill with a calf injury.

"At this stage it is unlikely that they will take any further part here," said Buchanan. "Then once the diagnostics are done, and everybody does the assessment, we will know more about the following Test match."

Zimbabwe are 87 for 2 in their follow-on, still 409 runs from making the Australians bat again. Australia's plan of attack tomorrow will be to use Andy Bichel and Brett Lee in short bursts, as there are 50 overs still left with the current ball. Buchanan said that Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting will all have to come into the attack.

Bichel said the players will be hoping to get the ball to swing again tomorrow in the way it did on the third day. "This afternoon it settled down a bit and wasn't swinging, and there wasn't a lot there for the bowlers," he said. "Hopefully we can wear them down and get those last eight wickets.

"That's quite a weird experience having two [bowlers] out. I have played in plenty of games where there is one out. Marto [Martyn] and Boof [Lehmann] will probably play a fair role tomorrow. Having two front-line bowlers out of the game is quite weird."

Bichel was unconcerned by the prospect of forecast showers on the last two days. "We will just go wicket by wicket and try to wear them down," he said, adding that the key on the third day had been bowling in partnerships: "That's something we do as a side quite well. We really did that today.

Mark Vermeulen, the Zimbabwe batsman, said the pitch was flat and that the one used for the warm-up game against Western Australia had done more. "They are totally different pitches. The pitch we played on a week ago was seaming around big-time, and had a lot of bounce and carry - whereas this one as you may have seen quite a few balls haven't gone through to the keeper. They have obviously over-rolled it, I think."

Vermeulen raised a smile when asked what the main lesson from watching Hayden bat was: "You have to get a ladder to climb up onto the stands to fetch the ball back."