Can the talking stop now? It's time for the real contest

When the likes of the usually reserved Nathan Lyon start to indiscriminately toss verbal grenades you know it’s about time the action proper got underway.

Ending careers, opening scars, backing up the talk, putting pressure on themselves etcetera, etcetera; it’s nothing new and after a while becomes pretty tiresome.

Even an Adele concert at the Gabba, back in March, has somehow been linked to a game of cricket eight months later as the ground staff have had to repair the pitch. Having said that, a headline of ‘Curator does his job’ doesn’t really leap off the page.

So, at last, the cricket. Australia seeking to replicate their success of four years ago and England attempting to win a fifth Ashes series in six.

Plenty of potentially intriguing narratives and a further opportunity for the most famous cricketing contest of them all to write another captivating chapter.

Warner or Cook? Root or Smith? Starc or Anderson? Vince or Marsh (I didn’t expect to write anything like that a month ago)?

Australia or England?

Let’s have a series prediction. With the protagonists not too dissimilar and at the risk of attracting many a mocking response, I’m leaning towards 2-2 but, whisper this quietly, have a sneaking suspicion the hosts may edge it.

The draw seems to be something of a dirty word in the modern-day version of the five-day game and if the weather god plays ball, taking fully into account the less than settled nature of the respective top orders, it is tricky to see where any stalemates could occur.

(Image: AFP Photo/William West)

And home advantage, especially in these days of truncated tours and limited preparation, does count for a great deal. It’s no coincidence that Australia have struggled in England in recent times with acclimitisation deemed overrated, or logistically impossible, and the same is true when the tourists head down under.

Playing against relatively mild opposition has some merits – familiarity with the surfaces, miles in the bowlers’ legs, time at the crease, for example – but can’t really prepare you for the intensity of what lies in wait.

For every two-day stroll against a Western Australia XI read a three-day canter versus a weakened Derbyshire but that is just how it is, like it or not, so there’s no use in complaining.

England will go into the opening skirmish in reasonably good fettle. Most of the batters have a few runs under their belt and their attack are in some sort of rhythm. There are a couple of worries; James Vince is yet to produce anything of substance and Moeen Ali has only a couple of days’ cricket to speak of – but you can’t have everything.

The same can be said of the hosts. Their bowling line-up has been set in stone for a while and have been managed with this fixture firmly in mind and the batters have been able to play, and this is not always the case, a good amount of first-class cricket in the build-up.

As with England, there are concerns. Tim Paine’s elevation (where on earth did that come from?) would’ve been a surprise to even his most ardent of supporters and Shaun Marsh’s latest recall, if nothing else, will give him another anecdote for his post-cricket after dinner speaking outings.

(AFP PHOTO / William WEST)

The home team’s record in Brisbane is good, exceptionally good in fact, and only the most optimistic of punters will be backing Joe Root’s men but although a good start is important, of course it is, there are five games for any wrongs to be righted with Adelaide held to be England’s best chance of getting a victory on the scoresheet.

But one things is clear; while Australia, with a few chinks in the armour, aren’t the world-beaters some like to think, if they get their tails up and given the style of cricket they like to play, they could well be extremely hard to stop.

If England can stay in the contest, which they are more than capable of doing, there is no reason why the moments that are delicately poised can’t fall in the favour. Get stuck behind the eight ball, however, and an examination can very quickly become a real struggle.

That is that as I’m not sure there’s too much to add. The players, the main ones anyway, are well known to all and sundry and in the age of all-encompassing and intrusive media very little, if anything, stays under the radar.

Five matches, twenty-five days, one small urn and two years’ bragging rights. Australia and England, let’s see what you’ve got.