Remarkable, isn’t it?

After a fairly close Ashes series that had two sides playing, at various times, between about seventy-five and eighty percent of capacity and went pretty much down to the wire we see a one-day series that went that close to a seven-nil whitewash.

And during that series we went from around seventy-five percent to very close to one hundred and the opposition slumped into the bottom half of the seventies.

All those numerical ratings are extremely subjective, of course, but regardless of that, what was it that changed?

Both sides went into the series making a couple of changes with a view to the upcoming Champions Trophy, so what was it that brought Australia to the point where they were more or less playing to potential?

It’s obvious that there were a couple of more or less forced changes to the side that ended up paying off.

Resting Ponting was always going to happen, given the cluttered playing schedule over the next few months. One wonders whether he really needed to be rushed back for the tail end of the one day series, particularly since that you’re looking at two England-Australia flights in a fairly short time-span. Admittedly, he was straight back in the thick of things when he got back, but two observations.

One: Did we really need him back in the side that soon? Sure, his presence made a difference, but if things were going to get tight towards the end of the series I’d rather see whether the younger players can lift to the new challenge rather than looking to an older head to save the day.

Two: Ponting’s absence gave a couple of the other players a chance to do something that they weren’t going to do while he was there. More or less an extension of the first point, perhaps, but in a series that doesn’t count for very much in the big scheme of things did we really need him back at all?

If the answer is that we wanted to give him a couple of warm-up games before the Champions Trophy, fair enough, but you’d still be inclined to question those two lengthy intercontinental flights.

A couple of the other changes were more or less injury-related and raise questions about the way we approached the Ashes Series.

First, the Brett Lee question. Lee came back strongly after missing the Ashes series through on-going injury issues. There were enough options in the one-day squad to cover if he didn’t come back (or broke down again) whereas in the Ashes series his injury issues restricted our options when we were quite demonstrably having problems taking twenty wickets.

Second, the injury to Brad Haddin gave an up-and-coming ‘keeper a chance to show his wares and Paine definitely looks to be a handy long-term proposition.

On the other hand, if this had been an important series would the selectors have been tempted to let and keep Haddin playing through injury, hoping he’d make it through, in much the same way that they seemed to keep Lee on hand during the Ashes in the hope that he’d eventually (possibly) come good?

Apart from Paine, the other changes to the quad weren’t exactly new faces, of course, but Ferguson, in particular looks to be a fairly promising prospect and is obviously the next cab off the rank for the middle order in the Test side. Assuming that young Hughes comes back having dealt with the questions that were raised through the first part of the Ashes series we’ve got a couple of interesting options for the Test side in the immediate future.

In the meantime, it’s off to South Africa for the Champions Trophy, where we’ve got games against West Indies, Pakistan and India in the pool stage of the competition. Presumably, we need to win two out of those three to be sure of progressing to the semi-finals, where we’d probably be lining up against South Africa or Sri Lanka. Or possibly New Zealand, or a reinvigorated England, if such a beast is a possibility.

But assuming we can roll the West Indies (likely, you’d think given the selection ructions over there) if we can’t beat one of India or Pakistan we’re going to be pushed to knock over South Africa or Sri Lanka.

Time will tell.

From there, before the domestic season kicks in, it’s off to India for another seven one-dayers before the home test series against West Indies and Pakistan. It’ll be interesting to see how we approach the selection issues associated with that tour.

Gazing into the crystal ball I’d be inclined to rest Mike Hussey on form grounds, if nothing else and slot Marcus North into his place, with the expectation that he’d be doing his share of bowling. Assuming that Mitchell Johnson needs a rest along the way, the obvious replacement would probably be Doug Bollinger, but I’d be inclined to be a little more adventurous and opt for NSW all-rounder Moises Henriques...

But time will tell.