It is easy to imagine Ashley Giles as a mainstay of the Ashes-losing sides of the past few series, but the memory plays tricks.
Giles has actually only played two Ashes Tests and, in the last one, he managed a creditable six wickets at Brisbane in the 1st Test of the 2002-03 series.
Injury kept him out of the rest of the series and he remains another relatively unknown quantity to Australian batsmen. They will face a man at the peak of his game who has enjoyed a phenomenally successful 12 months.
How things have changed since Giles came under so much media criticism at the start of last summer that he contemplated quitting Test cricket.
The criticism was especially harsh as Giles had excelled on the winter 2003 tour to Sri Lanka, taking 18 wickets in the three-Test series.
It had not been enough to prevent the old taunts of "wheelie-bin" resurfacing at the start of the 2004 season, but Giles was to prove his critics wrong, and probably even surprise himself, with the high quality of his bowling all summer.
He was devastating on the dry late-summer pitches for the four-Test series against the West Indies, grabbing 22 wickets at 23.13. At Edgbaston he twice removed Dwayne Bravo with wonder balls that drifted in to leg and hit the top of off stump.
Giles was reaping the rewards for remodelling his action during the tour of Bangladesh just prior to the Sri Lanka trip in 2003. It meant he was running in straighter and bowling with a higher arm, allowing him to impart more spin and flight the ball with more control.
Giles' counter-attacking batting has also developed and, prior to the Ashes, he had made five consecutive scores of 25 or above. He has the potential now to make a big score in a Test match.
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Geoff Boycott's verdict: