As Matthew Hayden leaves international cricket to spend more time with his surfboard, England must find another way to unsettle Australia in this summer’s Ashes series. Perverse as it sounds, the retirement of the player described by Ricky Ponting as the greatest opening batsman in his country’s history is bad news for Andrew Strauss and his colleagues.

The argument does not rest entirely with statistics that confirm Hayden’s decline, unflattering though they are. Since he made hundreds in successive Test innings against India 12 months ago, he has scored 383 runs (without a century) at an average of 23.93. If the decision was hard for Hayden, then it spared the selectors an even tougher call.

The likelihood now is that Australia will puff out their chests and enter the first Test at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, on July 8, with a better option alongside Simon Katich, whose recent progress has been inversely proportional to the decline of his partner. That is the reality left behind once the tributes rightfully pouring in to Hayden are shaped into a bookend for his career.

Eight good, very good or great Australia players who featured on the 2005 Ashes tour have called time on their careers. Shane Warne heads the group, followed by Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist, with Hayden and then Justin Langer slightly below. Jason Gillespie, Damien Martyn and Stuart MacGill (who would walk into the present side) have also retired.

The climate means that Australia will never be short of batsmen. Phil Jaques, favoured to replace Hayden if he can recover from back surgery, has scored 902 runs in 11 Tests. He also has experience of English conditions, with a combined championship average of 59.31 over five seasons for Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire. Chris Rogers, another contender, averages 53.07 between 2004 and 2008 at Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

Hayden was unable to find his best form in his two series in England. His average here of 34.50 (with only two scores over fifty) is his lowest in any country other than New Zealand. By no coincidence, England and New Zealand made a conscious effort to stand up to his strong, some think bullying, presence in the Australia side.

Anybody tracing England’s triumph in 2005 should remember a floodlit one-day international at Edgbaston before the Test matches. Hayden, at that time the leading opener in the world, was rattled on the field when Simon Jones, in his follow-through, took aim at the stumps and struck the batsman on the shoulder instead. As he moved to eyeball Jones, Hayden found himself surrounded by fielders. Message: England would not be intimidated. Hayden was soon dismissed by Jones without adding to his 14 runs.

He was soon rattled off the field, too. Later that evening, a rumour spread that he had sworn at one of the boys in the guard of honour when Australia ran on to the field for England’s innings. Hayden denied the charge vehemently. Warwickshire, the host county, received no complaint and no upset child or angry parent ever came forward. While nobody revealed a source, Hayden suspected a stitch-up by the England team. The matter festered with him through the trip.

Perhaps it was coincidence that he never got going in the subsequent Tests and his influence waned. By the time of the decisive game at the Brit Oval, his form had dipped to the point where some former Australia players were calling for his omission. Four years on, England would have tried to unsettle him as a plank of strategy once again. They need to rethink.

Andrew Flintoff is bound to figure in the Ashes, fitness permitting, and the all-rounder has played down his role in the chain of events that led to the resignation of Kevin Pietersen as captain and sacking of Peter Moores as head coach. “I hoped both could carry on,” he said. “I supported Kevin as captain and also enjoyed working with Peter.”

Recipe for success

- Matthew Hayden made his one-day international debut in 1993 and his Test debut a year later but it took him until 2000 to establish himself in either format.

- He made 8,625 runs in Tests at an average of 50.73. The highest of his 30 hundreds was 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003, at that time the world record.

- The left-hander scored more than 1,000 Test runs in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, the first man to achieve the feat five times.

- In the 2007 World Cup, he hit three centuries, including one against South Africa that took only 66 balls.

- He is a devout Catholic and has published two cookery books.