I guarantee I will be glued to my TV back home in South Africa watching the Ashes for two reasons: first, this is going to be a competitive, exciting series; second, England are coming out to South Africa in December, so I want to see how they are shaping up.

Australia are in a building phase but proved when they came to South Africa after Christmas just what quality and depth they have. We had recently beaten them 2-1 in Australia but I was impressed with the way they came back hard at us to win the return series 2-1. It just shows they will never lie down.

So I have seen these new Australians at pretty close quarters and, of course, we also faced England last summer. I wouldn’t like to claim some definitive expertise here — Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss will have their own plans — but here are my thoughts on how the series might go and in particular on the Australian players England will face.

Australia have only one specialist spinner, Nathan Hauritz, but have two batsmen, Michael Clarke and Marcus North, who can bowl decent spin, so I expect them to pick a four-man pace attack and bat very deep.

MY TEAM FOR CARDIFF

1 Phillip Hughes, left-hand opening bat

You always think you have a chance with Hughes but he doesn’t get out! He impressed me mentally. He played a horrible shot in his debut Test at Johannesburg to get out for a duck but didn’t put a foot wrong after that. A less mentally strong guy would not have backed that unorthodox technique and might have become tentative. Hughes never showed signs of that. He doesn’t get forward often, so encouraging him to do so might be a way of getting him out. You could also try to cramp him on leg stump because he wants room to slash you through the off side. He doesn’t look pretty but it’s not how, it’s how many.

2 Simon Katich, left-hand opening bat

He’s a tough character and a better player than when he was in England in 2005. He’s a no-nonsense hard worker. He walks across his crease to off stump, which lulls you into thinking you want to bowl straight at him (to get him lbw). But then he picks you off through the on side. So we decided to go wider to him, to get the ball outside his eyeline, and he started to feel for the ball.

3 Ricky Ponting, right-hand bat, captain

What can you say? He’s class. So much revolves around him, and he can take the game away from you. Whenever the opposition get an early wicket, Ponting counterattacks immediately, coming right at you. He runs well between the wickets and scores off the front and back feet. Bowling short to him looks tempting, as he gets so far forward, but then he pulls you. There was a feeling that you should bowl straight at him because he plants his front foot and is a candidate for lbw. But he’s so quick and strong through the leg side that he picks you off through there, and then he’s off and running. If that happens, your chance has gone. What we tried, with relative success, was to go wide outside off stump. The reason is that he likes to feel bat on ball early, especially in the first five deliveries. He doesn’t like leaving the ball, so we just hung it out there, outside his eyeline, and made him fetch it. I would have three slips and at least one gully, maybe two depending on the pace of the pitch, because, when he goes hard at it, the ball does fly in that area. In terms of his captaincy, I saw a very determined, focused guy, relishing the opportunity of rebuilding this Australian team. He is unbelievably focused, almost to a point of seeming aloof. When he plays well, Australia play well. Ponting and Tim Nielsen, the head coach, deserve a lot of credit for the way they regrouped in South Africa and came back at us. They also deserve credit for the way the cricket was played: hard, tough but in the right spirit.

4 Michael Clarke, right-hand bat, occasional left-arm spin