It’s that time of year when it’s too cold to get out of bed so you allow yourself an extra five minutes thinking about…cricket. I’m like the ubiquitous prisoner chalking off those days until we take on those wretched Aussies in the first Test in Brisbane. Every four years I tell myself: ‘This is going to be my year for going down under.’ And every four years there’s another reason why I can’t make it.

This time round it’s a combination of work, family and can’t get a ticket. And despite the disappointment of not being on the plane, I’ll be there in front of the TV most nights, cup of Horlicks by my side and a lump in my throat as the oldest sporting contest of all gets under way.

There’s something about those Aussies, the baggy green caps, the turned-up collars, the flamboyance and energy. Sure, it was great to give them a whipping last summer, but look at the records of England and the Aussies since that series. While England have struggled on the Indian sub-continent and to a certain degree against Sri Lanka at home, Ricky Ponting and Co have been demolishing the World X1, West Indies, South Africa (twice) and more latterly setting the scene for what may be coming with a comprehensive one-day thumping of England in Jaipur on Saturday in the Champions Trophy.

This was no ordinary victory – England were cruising at 70-odd for no wicket before a major collapse left Australia chasing a paltry 170, and the ease with which Damien Martyn saw them home, with Steve Harmison going for plenty, must be worrying the Ashes holders.

For me, the most interesting aspect of the game was the return to form of Glenn McGrath. After being heaved all over the park in his first spell, he came back as a vintage Glenn, dropping on a perfect length to keep the English tail nice and quiet. If McGrath is on form, England are going to struggle. And at last, it seems that the Aussies have found a replacement for the great man in Mitchell Johnson, a left-arm quickie with attitude.

As for England, unless they can find a way of halting this miserable run of form in the one-day game, their confidence is going to take a knock too difficult to recover from. For me, the batting lacks quality. We saw that on Saturday – once Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have gone from the middle order, a rather brittle backbone emerges. All this puts too much pressure on openers Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell. And for the life of me, I cannot understand why my new hero Monty Pannesar is not given a spin in the one-dayers.