ENGLAND must deal with being clear favourites to retain the Ashes from the five-Test series which began today at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
The hosts have won three of the last four series and face an Australia team which has been in disarray since it arrived to these shores last month.
First, they were bowled out for 65 in a ICC Champions Trophy warm-up match against India - then they bowed out of the main tournament in the group stages without a win.
The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) had seen enough, and axed coach Mickey Arthur with immediate effect just 16 days before the start of the Ashes
Of most concern, though, has been the indiscipline of the Baggy Greens. An awful tour of India, in which the Aussies were whitewashed 4-0 in Tests, culminated in four players - including then-vice-captain Shane Watson - being suspended for failing to complete feedback on how the team could improve.
Then, last month, after a defeat by 48 runs to England in the Champions Trophy, opening batsman David Warner ended up being banned until the start of this series and fined following an altercation with England youngster Joe Root.
Former Yorkshire batsman Darren Lehmann has replaced Arthur and will undoubtedly command more respect from the players than his South African predecessor.
Indeed, there is much hope Down Under that this late change to the coaching set-up will save Australia from humiliation.
But the fact remain that this is a desperately weak Aussie side with only one noticeably truly top class batsman, skipper Michael Clarke.
Clarke at least has a young and improving seam attack to call upon with Peter Siddle joined by Mitchell Starc as frontline bowlers.
The conspicuous lack of a spinner anywhere near the top class of Graeme Swann will surely be decisive at some point, though.
How times change. Twenty years ago this summer, Australia included a relatively unknown young leg-spinner by the name of Shane Warne in their touring party.
Warne's first ball in England, to Michael Gatting at Old Trafford, has become the stuff of legend and given the name of the Ball of the Century.
There is even a jaunty song about it ('Jiggery Pokery') by the the Duckworth-Lewis Method, the delightful side project of the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon.
It would be even more amazing to see either of the current spinners - Nathan Lyon or teenager Ashton Agar - get anywhere near to repeating the feat this year.
Nevertheless, England must be careful not to become too cocky before any wickets have been taken, runs scored or matches won.
After all, the last Australia team to be derided as the 'worst ever' in 1989 eventually won that six-Test series 4-0, and remarkably finished the first day of the fifth Test on 301-0. Famously, England would not regain the urn until 2005.
Australia, of course, responded to that with a 5-0 whitewash of England in their home series in 2006-07 - but England won 2-1 again in 2009 and then comprehensively outplayed the Aussies in the last series, achieving no fewer than three innings victories.
England continued to progress and became the world number one ranked team in Test cricket by beating India 4-0 in the summer of 2011 - but, more recently, Alastair Cook's men have gained a reputation for being poor front-runners.
The world number one status lasted just a year before South Africa took it with a 2-0 series win on English soil.
Meanwhile, in the recent home series against New Zealand, Cook had to deal with criticism over his lack of ruthlessness after declining to make the Black Caps follow-on despite a poor forecast.
But the England set-up was certainly ruthless enough in their decision to dispose of Nick Compton as an opener, in favour of Yorkshire's exciting talent, Root.
Compton decried his lack of opportunity and it was not long ago he was scoring back-to-back centuries in New Zealand.
Nevertheless, aged 30, the Somerset batsman is not the future - and he may even still get his chance further down the order if Jonny Bairstow's patchy form continues.
Overall, England's problems pale into insignificance compared to those of the visitors and perhaps the hosts' biggest enemy this summer will be complacency.
Cook has already confirmed that there will certainly be no room for that - and, if indeed that is the case, there will be no doubt about it: England will win.
THE ASHES 2013
FIXTURES
| 10-14 July | First Test | Trent Bridge |
| 18-22 July | Second Test | Lord's |
| 1-5 August | Third Test | Old Trafford |
| 9-13 August | Fourth Test | Riverside |
| 21-25 August | Fifth Test | The Oval |
SQUADS
England Alastair Cook (c), Joe Root, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, James Anderson, Tim Bresnan, Graham Onions.
Australia Michael Clarke (c), Brad Haddin (v-c), Shane Watson, Chris Rogers, Ed Cowan, Steve Smith, Phil Hughes, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, James Faulkner, Ryan Harris, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Matthew Wade, David Warner.
RECENT HISTORY
| Year | Host | Result |
| 2001 | England | AUSTRALIA won 4-1 |
| 2002-03 | Australia | AUSTRALIA won 4-1 |
| 2005 | England | ENGLAND won 2-1 |
| 2006-07 | Australia | AUSTRALIA won 5-0 |
| 2009 | England | ENGLAND won 2-1 |
| 2010-11 | Australia | ENGLAND won 3-1 |
OVERALL RECORD
| TESTS | All-time | In England |
| Played | 310 | 153 |
| England | 100 | 44 |
| Australia | 123 | 46 |
| Drawn | 87 | 63 |
| SERIES | All-time | In England |
| Played | 66 | 33 |
| England | 30 | 16 |
| Australia | 31 | 14 |
| Draw | 5 | 3 |
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