While it's England's big names who will take most of the attention in the build up to the Ashes series, that isn't where they will win or lose the summer of cricket down under.
Australia will rightly go into the Ashes as enormous favourites - I'm sure somewhere out there Glenn McGrath is predicting the hosts will win 5-0.
But there are questions for the Australians. Will their bowling attack hold up for five Tests? Should Mitchell Starc or Jhye Richardson take the third spot for seamers? Will David Warner hold his rediscovered form? Who is going to take on captaincy duties?
And more importantly, how easy will the Australians be able to take 20 wickets on a consistent basis, particularly considering the form woes Nathan Lyon found himself in last summer when the Aussies hosted, and fell, to India.
Losing a home series to India should have alarm bells ringing for Justin Langer's camp, but they seemingly don't at this stage as they build for the Ashes against an England team who have been written off far and wide.
But so much of this summer will be decided by what England can produce.
While you expect brilliance from the likes of Joe Root and Ben Stokes, and the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad will undoubtedly play strong cricket, opening batsman Rory Burns could be the man carrying the weight of a nation on his shoulders this summer.
An old-school opener, Burns will never be in a rush to score his runs. He has, in some ways, never looked the part in Test cricket, and his stats would indicate just that.
An average of 32.3 from 29 Tests, with just three centuries as an opening batsmen, really isn't what could be considered an acceptable record by English standards.
His recent series against India wasn't all that crash hot either, with Burns making just two half-centuries and a 49 across the four Tests. He had two ducks and a five from his seven innings, in a series which just didn't go his way.
Despite all of that, Burns seemed to be in free-flowing form on the opening day of England's first warm-up clash with the England Lions at Peter Burge Oval in Brisbane.
It may have been against England's second-choice bowling attack on display, but Burns scored 39 off 67 and seemed to have released the shackles which so often keep him tied down.
Up the other end, Haseeb Hameed made a half-century, and while the duo may not have found touch against India, they will need to if they England want to find a way past Australia.
Both were not out when rain brought a close to play for the day, and the duo will look to continue that on Day 2. From an English point of view, Burns' scoring a century is almost critical.
Burns' role in this English side for a tour down under is so, so important.
Pitches in Australia often tend to favour batsmen who can get themselves in, and teams who can see off the new ball. Do that, and not only could it be runs galore for Burns, but it will create a platform where Joe Root and Ben Stokes can bat against an older ball and a tiring attack.
That absolutely must be the strategy for England - to allow Root and Stokes the best of the batting conditions.
Australia's attack at times will play right into that hand. If the pitch isn't taking turn, then Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins can often run out of ideas in terms of what to throw at the batsmen, and almost consistently resort to short-pitched bowling which, while threatening in the sense that it could cause injury, doesn't often take all that many wickets.
Early wickets will be critical to Australia's hopes of being able to take 20 wickets, but Australian conditions - with a little bit extra bounce, pace and carry, could well favour Burns.
He has never played in Australia, however, the two countries with what might be described as similar conditions - New Zealand and South Africa - have seen him score 277 runs in five innings, going past 50 in three of those innings.
His strike rate in those countries is also considerably higher than what it is in England, where he only averages 33.65 with the bat.
This could be the summer of Burns, in much the same way 2010-11 was the summer of Alastair Cook, and if Australia want to win, they need to work out a foolproof plan which will get rid of the stubborn opener as quickly as possible, every single time.
