WINNING the Ashes will be as easy as 1-2-3, according to Matthew Hayden, the former Australia opening batsman, who sees the battle between his heirs and the England opening trio as crucial to the destiny of the series.
"Batting in English conditions, you can often go through benign stages, but not when you're facing the new ball and it is swinging," Hayden said.
"If the numbers 1, 2 and 3 can get going, it will set the summer up for you -- and both England and Australia are armed with good men there."
Hayden and Justin Langer never quite fired at the same time in the 2006-07 Ashes, which Australia won 5-0, but still scored almost 200 runs more between them in the series than England's opening pair of Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss. However, Hayden believes England's pair has learnt from the experience and can match Australia's opening partnership of Simon Katich and Phillip Hughes.
"Hughes has had an outstanding start to his career," Hayden said of the man who replaced him for the most recent series away to South Africa, in which Hughes scored two centuries. "An in-form Hughes and Katich is very strong and they are followed by Ricky Ponting, to whom you can't compare any batsman on the planet."
He noted, however, that England's new No3, Ravi Bopara, "has had a very impressive start to his summer" with hundreds in successive innings.
"Kevin Pietersen would love Bopara to do well and lay the platform for him to come in and attack," Hayden said.
The series needs players who can grab a match by the scruff of the neck. Pietersen is one and so, for England, would be Andrew Flintoff, who is struggling with a knee injury sustained while playing alongside Hayden for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League last month.
"England must pick him if he is fit," Hayden said.
"What a fully fit Flintoff can offer is second to none. He is a complete cricketer."
In the same way, Hayden said he was astonished that Australia's selectors had ignored Andrew Symonds, his former Queensland teammate.
"Symonds is a powerful cricketer and there is always a place for that in Test cricket," Hayden said.
"He can take a game away from your opponents in a short space of time, like Flintoff and Pietersen. That is a very special ability and not having him in England will be a loss."
England cannot start to rest easy, however. There is at least one Ashes debutant whom Hayden is certain will finish the series with his reputation enhanced and that is Mitchell Johnson. Another Queenslander, Johnson has taken 94 wickets in only 21 Tests and showed in South Africa that he was capable of making an impact with the bat, too.
Johnson's batting average in six Tests against South Africa is 57. "He is emerging as one of the true champion bowlers," Hayden said. "His workload has been phenomenal but a break will have done him good. His batting has been bloody handy, too, when we have been exposed."
While Australia makes its final preparations for the Ashes and the World Twenty20, many might be surprised that Hayden is not with them given that he is still batting so well. He was the leading run-scorer by more than 100 in the group stage of the IPL and Chennai will look for more runs from him in its semi-final against Royal Challengers Bangalore today.
"I've always really enjoyed the Twenty20 format," Hayden said. "This is the competition I most savour now."
