The Saracens wing missed England’s opening QBE autumn Test through suspension - but he returns to face the Wallabies, against whom he has scored three tries in three Tests.

Ashton scored his first Test try in England’s 21-20 victory in Sydney on the 2010 summer tour and he touched down twice in a record 35-18 win at Twickenham the following autumn.

The second of those efforts, finished by Ashton after England launched a counter-attack from behind their own line, has gone down in the annals as one of the great Twickenham tries.

Ashton is England’s most potent attacking threat and he will consider a game against the injury-hit Wallabies as the perfect opportunity to break his international try duck for 2012.

England go into the game as favourites as they target a third consecutive victory over Australia, a run of success they have not enjoyed since winning the World Cup in 2003.

The Wallabies were on the receiving end of a 33-6 thumping in France last weekend and they head to Twickenham without the injured trio David Pocock, Kane Douglas and Pat McCabe plus the suspended Rob Simmons.

Australia coach Robbie Deans has been able to recall wing Digby Ioane, full-back Berrick Barnes and prop Ben Alexander.

Lancaster had considered making changes to all three rows of the scrum but he resisted the temptation to rush prop Alex Corbisiero back from injury.

Wasps lock Tom Palmer has retained his place in the second row with his club-mate Joe Launchbury again on the bench.

Thomas Waldrom continues at number eight and Tom Johnson starts again on the blindside, with Tom Wood once again primed to come off the bench.

Brad Barritt and Manu Tuilagi combine again in midfield after Jonathan Joseph, who has also just returned from injury, was released with Corbisiero to play for London Irish this weekend.

And Alex Goode will look to build on the promising creative partnership he struck up with fly-half Toby Flood in the Fiji game, offering England a second play-making option from full-back.

Lancaster said: “We were pleased with lots of aspects of our performance last week, but we know we need to improve this week and, by having some consistency in selection, we allow those players to demonstrate we can step up to the next level against what will be a very tough Australian side.”

England team for the QBE international against Australia at Twickenham on Saturday, November 17 (kick-off 2.30pm):

A Goode (Saracens); C Ashton (Saracens), M Tuilagi (Leicester), B Barritt (Saracens), C Sharples (Gloucester); T Flood (Leicester), D Care (Harlequins); J Marler (Harlequins), T Youngs (Leicester), D Cole (Leicester), T Palmer (Wasps), G Parling (Leicester), T Johnson (Exeter), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), T Waldrom (Leicester).

Replacements: D Paice (London Irish), D Wilson (Bath), M Vunipola (Saracens), J Launchbury (Wasps), T Wood (Northampton), B Youngs (Leicester), O Farrell (Saracens), M Brown (Harlequins).