It's always difficult to pull out which players you think will do well, exceed expectations and have a seminal impact on this Ashes series but I reckon the form and fortunes of the following three from each team could prove pivotal to the series' outcome.

For England I have selected Marcus Trescothick, Andy Caddick and Simon Jones as my chosen three, and here's why.

I went for Caddick basically because he's the only world class bowler in the England line up that's fit and he's the one guy that I would hope would cause all the Australian batsmen problems. He is also semi-reliable and should do well on the bouncy wickets but obviously he needs support.
(Test stats)

Unfortunately I think Darren Gough's time is done so Jones is my other bowling choice, hoping that he can support Caddick and be effective with the old ball. That doesn't just mean reverse swinging it but also hopefully roughing up a few of the Aussie batsmen with it. He's also a bit of an unkown quantity for the Aussies, athough I do worry about his fitness.
(Test stats)

Trescothick was another obvious choice because he's the one really world class batsman in the England team. He's also not that worried about Glenn McGrath because he didn't get him out much in the last series at home, it was Gillespie mostly in that series. I think he's our best blunting mechanism against their best two bowlers (McGrath and Shane Warne).
(Test stats)

Picking three Australians was less straightforward given their abundance of talent but in the end I plumped for Glenn McGrath, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist.

For me McGrath is still invincible and would be in my all-time best bowling attack from any country. I just don't know how you score a run off him really. England must concentrate on trying not to get out to him and I think if they can rotate the strike against him to get a right and left combination that should annoy him and get him kicking the turf.
(Test stats)

I chose Martyn because I think he's one of the best batsmen in the world. When he batted against England in the series last year I couldn't see an obvious weakness really. He's a bit of a back foot player but that's fine in Australia. He just looked a very good all-round and very dangerous player who could easily move up to No 4 in the batting order.
(Test stats)

Gilchrist is the guy who just takes it away from you when you've done all the hard work. He keeps doubling what the first five wickets have scored when the ball is hard and new and it's a bit of a battle. You get them 200-5 and think 'yeah we'll get them all out for 270' and suddenly it's 450 all out. He has this ability to absolutely take the game away from you.
(Test stats)

24 Oct, 2002