Ashes Preview: England Aim To Lay Ghosts To Rest

Four years ago, I spent a cold Wednesday evening standing in a University bar, nervously checking my phone every few minutes desperately hoping to see that England had claimed another Australian wicket. Like most ex-students, I'm nostalgic about those carefree days, although unlike most Australians, I'm less nostalgic about the seven weeks of torment that followed.

England's 5-0 defeat was the latest in a bitter line of Ashes series that occasionally promised much, but continually failed to deliver anything other than a win in a dead rubber. This year's contest, which gets underway later this week, in contrast is filling most watchers with the optimism of the best series battle for many a tour.

That optimism has been fulled by victories in two warmup games against Western Australia and Australia A, with a third victory against South Australia only thwarted by the weather. Wickets have been taken by all the main bowlers and runs have generally flowed from the bats of the likes of Strauss, Bell and Cook.

Belief is also sustained by the fact that Australia are not the force they once were. 2006-07 was the last great hurrah of possibly the best team of the recent era. Langer, Hayden, Warne and McGrath have all gone from the Australian side, each one of them able to write a chapter on how they tore apart an English lineup.

The irony is some of the men who have replaced them could cause England just as much cause for concern. Mitchell Johnson is the definition of inconsistency, a poor tour in 2009 indicative of a man who performances on home soil would put him up there with the best in the world.

Australia's chances depend on which Johnson turns up. Doug Bollinger is a typical Aussie fast bowler, a man who likes to get in opponents faces and wind others up so much that his domestic team mates bought him a new pair of trainers, an Ipod and told him in the nicest possible to way to go and run a few laps around the boundary.

On the batting front Marcus North is under as much pressure now as he was before he scored two hundreds and averaged just under 50 during last summer's Ashes series. While the self-made opener Shane Watson continues to impress, having made nine scores of over 50 in past 12 months. Add in to that the names of Poning, Clarke and Katich and taking 20 Australian wickets will be no mean task, 

English hopes ahead of Brisbane's first test are at the highest they have been for perhaps 25 years, this will be by no means an easy series however, what it does promise to be though is a highly exciting if very nervous one.