Australia is desperate to finish off England in Fifth and Final Ashes

Australia's captain, Tim Paine, wants to put on the "cake squeak" with victory in the fifth Ash Test as England fights over a plan to fire the insatiable Steve Smith.

Aussies eventually said goodbye to stubborn England at Old Trafford on Sunday to take A 2-1 lead in the five-match series with only one match to go, meaning they will retain the ballot box regardless of the result at the Oval.

To have any chance of leveling the series, World Cup winners England will have to find a way to solve the conundrum of the immovable Smith, who has scored 671 runs in just five innings with a surprising average of over 134.

The former captain led the batting of his team with three centuries and fifty, including a double century in the Manchester victory, with Marnus Labuschagne as the only other batsmen to have shown consistency.

Steve Smith returned to the test match game show in England after completing a 12-month ball-tampering ban and scored a mountain of runs despite missing three innings after being hit by a Jofra Archer brutal bouncer.

Given a full series, the monstrous Smith could have been even closer to Don Bradman's 974-runs record for the most runs ever conducted in a series of tests, which sets in 1930.

The other key factor for Australia has been the strength of their pace attack, with Josh Hazlewood and world number one Pat Cummins catching the eye with 42 wickets between them.

Paine said Australia had much hunger to win its first series of ashes in England since 2001 by avoiding defeat at the Oval Ashes Test, which began on Thursday.

It is our grand finale, and we want this test as much as any other test we've played in this series, Paine said.

While Speaking about the tour, the Australian skipper said, "Bar probably an hour at Headingley is gone as we would have liked."

"We'd like to be 3-1 up, but we made some mistakes in Headingley (third test) in the last hour, but we've moved on from that." We're thrilled to be here at 2-1 and want to put the icing on the cake and make sure it's 3-1 before we go home."

The Aussies all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has summoned to the 12-man squad in place of the batsmen Travis Head to ease the workload on Australia's fast bowlers.

- Root challenge -

Joe Root must inspire his squad to a last-see effort after an exhausting season in which England became ICC Cricket world champion of limited overs.

His failure to recover the ashes has sparked questions about the Yorkshireman's position, particularly given his inconsistent batting throughout the series.

However, he said he knew the direction he wanted to take the team and was already eager for the battle in Australia in 2021-22.

"It's bitterly disappointing not to recover the ashes, but we haven't lost anything yet," said the defiant England captain.

"We have to make sure to square the series, and there are also points for the Test Championship, which in the future could make a big difference."

Day-time specialist Jason Roy and sailor Craig Overton have left out of the starting XI, with Sam Curran and Chris Woakes as All-rounder players.

Root said Roy, who has had a disappointing series, had been lost because of the team needed to rebalance due to Stokes' injury.

Stokes is England's top scorer in the series, with 354 runs and two centuries, but, except for Rory Burns, the rest of the batters have struggled to build totals for the bowlers to defend.

In the continued absence of the injured James Anderson, Root will rely on his new combination of Stuart Broad and Archer to do the damage.

However, you'll know that for every minute Smith is in the fold, any hope of denying Australia will diminish.