MATTHEW HOGGARD is backing new ball partner Steve Harmison to rediscover his best form in Friday's second Ashes Test after two days of intensive work on his bowling.
Hoggard, like the rest of the England team, watched Harmison endure a nightmare start to the series by delivering the first ball to captain Andrew Flintoff at second slip.
He never recovered and finished with unflattering figures of one for 177.
But after Harmison spent two days working alongside bowling coach Kevin Shine in the Adelaide Oval nets Hoggard is confident the Durham fast bowler is back to his best and can threaten again.
"It's hard to watch somebody struggling, especially in front of a lot of people and getting abuse from all sides," admitted Hoggard.
"He openly admits he didn't bowl well and he's worked hard.
"He was down here yesterday and he was back down here at 8.30 this morning putting in the hard yards and he's feeling good about his bowling now so I think we'll see a different Steve Harmison come Friday morning."
In addition to seeking help from Shine, Harmison has also asked around the England dressing room for advice in an attempt to find the key to his wayward display at Brisbane, which contributed to Australia's emphatic 277-run triumph.
Hoggard revealed: "It's a very open England dressing room. Everybody chats to each other and everybody bounces ideas off everybody else and Steve has been asking around and openly admitting that he didn't bowl well.
"When you're bowling in the nets you know yourself when the ball comes out if it's feeling good or not and he says it's feeling good.
"He's been hitting the bat hard and he's been telling me that he knows where it's going. He said he was feeling that everything is coming out well so I've got full confidence in him - he thinks he's back to his best."
The Yorkshire seamer also believes the nerves, which were blamed for England's dismal opening day display at the Gabba, are firmly behind the tourists as they attempt to bounce back from an opening Test defeat for the second successive Ashes series.
"It's the start of a series or of something big when you get the nerves and once you're in it the nerves tend to go away," he added.
"We're well and truly into it now and we've got four matches to pull it around."
England were giving nothing away at today's practice session about whether they intend to play two spinners and leave out one of the seamers, with Monty Panesar expecting to take over from Lancashire seam bowler James Anderson.
Australia have already signalled their intent not to follow the same route by excluding leg spinner Stuart MacGill from their squad and are expected to name an unchanged line-up.
