We have nothing to fear but fear itself

But my concern — based on watching them closely for the past year — is that the team lack not only self belief but also the ability to grab Test matches by the scruff of the neck and win games from unpromising positions.

Both elements are vital ingredients of a successful team, but only come about through stringing a platform of victories together.

We can look at two wins over the West Indies in May and kid ourselves into believing that they proved something. The truth is they did nothing whatsoever, except ink Ravi Bopara's name into the No3 position — conveniently ignoring the fact he was dropped no fewer than five times in the course of making his three hundreds against poor opposition.

Yes, Graham Onions looked promising, but the truth is that Chris Gayle's team were such a demotivated, disorganised rabble that we really should be very careful about rushing to any conclusions.

Until that series, England had won just a single, solitary Test since 12 July 2008. Eleven games, one win and four defeats against South Africa, India and the West Indies. They had their moments, particularly in Chennai against India, and in Antigua and Port of Spain. Three matches England should have won but, dispiritingly failed to do so.

It is no good to rue how close you came. If England are to win the Ashes this summer, it will be by seizing moments of opportunity, no matter how slight, and transforming them into match-turning highlights.

England do have a core of steely-minded individuals who would sweat blood for their team. Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann are three genuine competitors who are never wound up by their opponents (as Kevin Pietersen can be sometimes) or cowed by a pressurised situation.

They will provide a lead, but it is then for the captain, Strauss, to motivate and encourage the quieter individuals like Bopara, Alistair Cook and Monty Panesar to find that little bit extra.

That is one reason I was pleased that Steve Harmison was left out of this First Test. It is very encouraging to see him bowling with some pace again, but memories of his dreadful opening ball of the last Ashes, which betrayed his own crushing lack of self-confidence in the most humiliating manner, will never fade.

He is a nice fellow and all that but simply not the right, forceful character to have in the dressing room at the moment. Besides, in Flintoff and Broad — who gave Ramnaresh Sarwan a real roughing up at Chester-le-Street — England have enough firepower and aggression, and need to balance the attack with the swing of James Anderson.

Panesar is another whose mental frailty bothers me. He has been working very hard to improve the variety in his bowling, but now has more or less admitted defeat — in public, too. That is really sad, because we are all left wondering if such a naturally talented bowler really is getting the right advice.

Monty has all the basic attributes to be a fine Test spinner — and he made a dramatic start — but you need to kick on, improve and learn new tricks if you are to sustain your success over a lengthy career.

So the mental approach has to be right in order to compete with an Australian team which, on paper, looks no more threatening than England's but which is firmly built on confidence and aggression.

Philip Hughes, the talented but unusual opener, has a definite weakness against the short ball while Mike Hussey has been suffering a nightmare run of low scores.

Ricky Ponting is the only truly world-class batsman they have. Australia do have a powerful and well balanced pace attack but they have a dreadful quandary over the lack of a respectable spinner. Gone are the days when Ponting could simply toss the ball to Shane Warne and rotate the others from the other end.

They will still come out with the aim of hitting England hard, and England's first objective is to show that they will not give an inch.