Hussain and Fletcher can only hope Australians have peaked too soon

The Ashes: England's opening partnership will be crucial as world's best side set the standard in savaging of Pakistan

As England's cricketers excitedly pack their bags in preparation for this winter's tour of Australia, events in Sharjah will not have escaped them. If any of the 15 cricketers that leave on Thursday – their captain, Nasser Hussain, is already in Perth for family reasons – ever doubted the size of the task that lies ahead of them, a quick glimpse at Australia's two-day drubbing of Pakistan will make them think again.

It would be something of an understatement to say, after bowling Pakistan out for 59 and 53, that Australia are warming up quite nicely for the Ashes, and there may come a time soon where updates from their games will be issued with a Government health warning.

The only shred of comfort England can take from this result, and it has taken me a while to come up with it, is that Australia may be peaking too early. This may sound a very big clutch at a small piece of straw, but it is one worth making because no matter how Hussain and the England coach, Duncan Fletcher, attempt to motivate their side they will know at the back of their minds that if Australia play to their full potential, England, like any other side in the world, will struggle to live with them.

However, the fact that Hussain's 16-man squad is relatively inexperienced – only five of them have toured Down Under and just eight have experience of playing against Australia – should not necessarily work against them even though it is the toughest of tours. Despite the facilities at the grounds and the hotels you stay in being as good as any in the world, three and a half months in Australia pushes you to the limit both mentally and physically. From the moment you land in Perth the Australians will chip away at you.

The media will waste little time in ridiculing and making disparaging remarks about your ability. This will be echoed, along with a few other comments in slightly coarser language, by the spectators – I lost count of the number of times I was told at fine leg that my wife cooks a good breakfast. And the players, especially in the warm-up games, will do as much as they can to wreck your confidence before the Test matches start.

This is fair enough and a previous experience of this sort of hostility would help, but if you are thick-skinned and mentally strong such problems can be more than made up for by a young, strong body. Australia is not the place for an old trunk that has been round the clock a couple of times. Such time-worn frames will be exposed by the hot weather, the hard pitches and the nature of the cricket, which is full-on from the moment you leave the dressing-room.

This is why Darren Gough should not tour with the Test squad after admitting that he does not expect to be fit for the first two Test matches. He should now be told to get himself right for the one-dayers in December and work towards the World Cup in February.

There is no practice game between the back-to-back second and third Tests and only one-day internationals between the third and fourth Tests. In this time Gough has no chance to prove that he is fit enough to get through three let alone five days cricket in a row.

With age in mind – eight of the Australian side that won in Sharjah are over 30 – England could do a lot worse than adopt the game plan implemented successfully by New Zealand last winter. The Kiwis, magnificently captained by Stephen Fleming, drew 0-0 but could easily have become the first side to win a Test series in Australia since the West Indies won under Richie Richardson 10 years ago.

The plan was simple and all they attempted to do during the first three or four days of each Test match was live with Australia – to keep them in touching distance. Having achieved this, with honours about even and the game apparently heading towards a tedious draw, Fleming would then throw down the gauntlet to Steve Waugh's side.

He would declare behind, knowing that saying "we are prepared to have a game of cricket, are you?" would be too much of a challenge for the Australians to turn down. Common sense would not prevail and the combination of over-confidence, arrogance and a desire to be seen as the most positive cricket side in the world, would give his young New Zealand side a chance of nipping it. These tactics did not quite work, although New Zealand should have won two of the three Test matches, but they certainly gave Australia a fright.

To give themselves a chance of getting into this position, though, England need to bat well and to score heavily in the first innings of games. With a batting line-up that has had a wonderful summer against Sri Lanka and India, this is something they should be capable of on excellent pitches.

A lot will depend on the opening partnership of Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan. Both are positive players who like to take the game to the opposition but in Australia, more than anywhere else, shot selection is vital. The pitches have a little more bounce in them than most and edges will carry to slip, so leaving the ball is as important as smacking it.

The biggest challenge for England's batsmen will be once again negotiating the skills of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. In 41 Ashes Test matches they have taken 216 wickets between them at an average of just 21.36. And if these rates were to continue this winter, and their performances so far in Pakistan suggest that they will, England can kiss goodbye to the urn for another 30 months.

With Gough unlikely to be playing much of a role, England will look to Andrew Caddick to provide them with a cutting edge. Caddick would be as good a bowler as McGrath if he was as ruthless and mentally strong as the New South Welshman. But he is not and the Australians are aware of this.

Caddick, like all other England's bowlers has never toured Australia, before and this series could go one way or the other for the Somerset fast bowler. Even in the warm-up games (look out for Ryan Campbell at Western Australia) batsmen will look to get after him and wreck his confidence. If he is up to it he will have an excellent tour. If he isn't . . .

All in all Australia is a tour where you will succeed if you are good enough and are exposed if you are not. Here lies the challenge for Hussain's side.