After the fantastic finish yesterday, I guess England may get a lot of praise in a few quarters for batting out all those overs to save the game. But that shouldn't hide the big picture. Australia may be disappointed at not taking the last wicket they needed to complete the job, but they were the better side for most of the five days.

Nothing really surprised me about what happened. There was a lot of talk about England being favourites, but what have they really done over the past year or so apart from beating West Indies at home a couple of months ago? Other than home advantage, I didn't see that much going for them and I think that was proved in Cardiff.

Australia will take a lot of positives. Brad Haddin showed that he is good enough to be a specialist batsman - not as destructive as Adam Gilchrist but still a very good player and probably better behind the stumps. You saw Marcus North and Michael Clarke playing spin really well; there could have been five hundreds in the innings.

The Australia team are no longer in transition. They really gelled on the way to beating South Africa in South Africa, a great win. If people underestimated Australia this time last week, they won't be today. They are stamping their own style, or brand, on the way they play.

The latest result needs to be put into context. Despite losing the toss Australia got into a winning position and if time had not been lost to rain on Saturday afternoon, when they were flying in the field after taking two early wickets, I'm sure they would have gone on to win.

Kevin Pietersen seems to be a talking point. I gather somebody asked him at a press conference last week whether he had a new shot for the Ashes now that Shane Warne isn't around to talk about a new mystery ball. He said that he hadn't, but I'm not too sure after seeing the dumb sweep shot that got him out in the first innings.

He reminds me of Mark Waugh. “Junior” was another who found batting so easy that he sometimes got out in ways that looked horrible, like reverse-sweeping Phil Tufnell. I think Pietersen, too, just gets bored. That is where hunger comes in. He prepares better than anybody for games, but he has to put the team first, not himself.

There is no doubt to me that he can be the best batsman in the world. He has so much talent, but the best players have that determination to make big scores and don't make silly mistakes. There was a great example of what I mean at Cardiff: Ricky Ponting's 150 was a really solid innings by a very talented and consistent player.

You have to be careful not to overcriticise. Cricket isn't played by robots. Any batsman can get out. What matters is the way they get out, because that reveals their thought processes about batting. It seemed that Pietersen just wanted to keep playing sweep shots against Nathan Hauritz. To me, that is an ego shot.

I know that Paul Collingwood scored a few runs, and fair play to the bloke, but Pietersen and Andrew Strauss are the key to England's batting. Strauss didn't have his best game as captain. His fields didn't show a lot of imagination and I was surprised that Pietersen didn't have a bowl.

Australia don't have any reason to make changes for Lord's, but England will look at their bowling attack. I think Adil Rashid is ready for Test cricket. They need a bit of variety among the pace bowlers. Maybe Ryan Sidebottom, Stephen Harmison, James Anderson and Andrew Flintoff would be the best combination.

Don't believe everything you read and hear

It was a bit annoying to see a couple of pretty ordinary items of journalism while I was away. To say that Sky Sports had no idea about my poker commitments was completely wide of the mark. They knew that if I got through the first round of the World Series of Poker there would be a clash - which is what happened.

Then there was a piece about pulling out of a dinner in Cardiff. I didn't do that and can't think where it came from. Over 15 years I have made a point of never committing to something if I'm not sure I will be able to fulfil it. Giving my word means a lot, and it's upsetting to hear it being questioned.

Anyway, I'm over the horror blow I copped on the table in Las Vegas on Friday and looking forward to giving an Aussie slant in the Sky box at Lord's. Nasser Hussain has been saying that he expects me to go at him the way I did in our playing days. Mate, I'm not planning to disappoint.