Second-placed England goes into the Ashes needing to win all five Test matches to knock Australia from the top of the LG ICC Test Championship.
Australia's lead at the top of the official table has been over 20 points since August 2004 and it holds a 21-point advantage over its closest rival going into this series.
England has a very good opportunity to close this gap as even a one-Test margin of victory would see the gap reduced to eight points while a drawn series would lift England's rating to 117 points, 13 behind Australia.
Australia's dominance of Test cricket over recent years is such that it must win by a three-Test margin to extend its lead over England.
Australia goes into the series with three batsmen -- Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist -- in the top 10 of the LG ICC Player Rankings. In Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne they have two of the top five bowlers.
England's highest ranked Test players are Marcus Trescothick (batting) and Matthew Hoggard (bowling) who both hold tenth spot in their specialised disciplines.
The LG ICC Test Championship table correct on 18 July 2005:
| Position | Team | Rating |
| 1 | Australia | 132 |
| 2 | England | 111 |
| 3 | India | 107 |
| 4 | Pakistan | 100 |
| 5 | Sri Lanka | 100 |
| 6 | South Africa | 100 |
| 7 | New Zealand | 97 |
| 8 | West Indies | 75 |
| 9 | Zimbabwe | 41 |
| 10 | Bangladesh | 5 |
England v Australia full scenarios:
| Eng | Aus | |||
| Rating as at July 2004 | 111 | 132 | ||
| England win | by 5 Tests | 5-0 | 125 | 122 |
| England win | by 4 Tests | 4-0 | 123 | 123 |
| England win | by 3 Tests | 3-0, 4-1 | 122 | 125 |
| England win | by 2 Tests | 2-0, 3-1 | 121 | 126 |
| England win | by 1 Test | 1-0. 2-1, 3-2 | 119 | 127 |
| Series drawn | 0-0, 1-1, 2-2 | 117 | 130 | |
| Australia win | by 1 Test | 1-0. 2-1, 3-2 | 114 | 132 |
| Australia win | by 2 Tests | 2-0, 3-1 | 113 | 134 |
| Australia win | by 3 Tests | 3-0, 4-1 | 111 | 135 |
| Australia win | by 4 Tests | 4-0 | 110 | 136 |
| Australia win | by 5 Tests | 5-0 | 109 | 138 |
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