Every time he admires himself in the mirror, Australian captain Ricky Ponting will be reminded of the last time the Ashes was played in England: he still bears the scars.

Although he avenged that painful (exciting for the rest of us) 2005 relinquishing of the famous urn with a 5-0 home whitewash a year and a half later, his pudgy Tasmanian face is tellingly marked by a little divot, a souvenir of a brutal Steve Harmison delivery which drew blood from the dazed Australian captain in the opening Test of a truly memorable series.

The vicious blow from the Durham bowler’s bouncer is one of the many enduring images from that incredible summer four years ago, one that still rankles with the ultra-competitive Ponting.

It was a series that was defined by aggressive bowling; Andy Flintoff’s star rising at a fairly apt pace, only for it to fall as alarmingly in a haze of booze and injuries that, with impeccable timing, he is only now emerging from.

And the respective attacks are under scrutiny this time around too. For the tourists, Brett Lee’s injury-enforced removal from Wednesday’s Cardiff opener only serves to highlight Ponting’s lack of a discernible bowling heir to the vicious speed of Glenn McGrath or indeed the mischievous spin of Shane Warne.

Nor is it all rosy in the home garden where green shoots are evident but blooming isn’t guaranteed (the recuperating/ed Flintoff, Jimmy Anderson, Graeme Onions).

So it’s down to a pair of unpredictable batting orders to settle this storied dispute.

Australia’s young leading batsman, Philip Hughes, is all the rage Down Under. His demeanour when facing the bowler suggests he is a little unsure why he has been asked to fill Matthew Hayden’s pads but then he connects and the hype is explained away. Ponting will be dependable as ever while Michael Clarke will have to finally put up or shut up.

For England, Andrew Strauss will need to follow Michael Vaughan’s example but he leads a lengthy batting order that goes all the way to ‘Freddy’ Flintoff at seven. Packed in there also, just for some spice, are two whole egos, Ravi Bopara and Kevin Pietersen.

So, with Cardiff welcoming its first ever Test match, is it acceptable to hope that England regain the Ashes? I can’t deny that 2005 was, for me, a feelgood reversal of the colonial way of things. I had long tired of the ironic inability of England to play their own sport.

And thanks to the classless domination of Steve Waugh’s Invincibles, the ‘Whinging Poms’ stereotype often wielded about by the Australian nation finally came unstuck. It was the McGraths and the Haydens who had been demonstrating a crass inability to lose with grace.

So the neutral observer joined the gripped English public in enjoying every dramatic over which brought  Vaughan’s underdogs closer to a historic defeat of the old enemy - who took it pretty badly.

So if Irish musicians Neil Hannon and Pugwash can celebrate this much-anticipated series, then so should we all.