Nielsen with plenty to ponder

Tim Nielsen was born in London but will be hoping to mastermind an Australia Ashes victory this summer

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Australia's plans to embarrass England on their own soil this summer have been penned by an Englishman and his predecessor as coach is spending a week with the hosts in the build-up.

Tim Nielsen, who replaced John Buchanan at the helm two years ago, was born in Forest Gate, London.

Nielsen moved to Alice Springs with his English parents at an early age, and, quietly, built himself a formidable reputation as a coach after retiring as a wicketkeeper-batsman 10 years ago, in the knowledge that at 30 his chance of playing for his country had gone.

He graduated from South Australia's playing staff to their coaching set-up and was fast-tracked all the way to national assistant coach under Buchanan.

They complemented each other well, with Buchanan's theorising and left-field thinking backed up by Nielsen's tracksuit role.

"John's been a good mentor for me, but I'd probably be more a hands-on type of coach, probably doing more skills work with the players," Nielsen said in anticipation of being promoted in early 2007.

"John sort of manages the coaching program he has set up. I think I've got a good rapport with the current Australian players, and also, having worked with Australia A and at the academy, I know a fair few of the younger blokes coming through.''

In picking Nielsen, Australia continued their policy of plumping for strengths not stripes.

When appointing Buchanan years earlier, the then Australian Cricket Board ditched the logic that said a coach had to have appeared in more Tests than training seminars and appointed a university lecturer.

Cricket traditionalists baulked at the idea of a coach giving his pep talks as powerpoint presentations and Shane Warne, the main opponent to 'Buck' throughout his tenure, is still fond of bagging him now.

Nielsen worked alongside the hugely successful John Buchanan before taking over as Australia coach two years ago

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But the bigger problem facing Nielsen, rather than a lack of Test caps himself, was one that also faced Peter Moores - how to follow the most successful national coach in the country's history (short as that history is, seeing as coaches in cricket only became fashionable in the 1980s).

]Moores never wriggled free of the shadow Duncan Fletcher left over the England team but Nielsen, 41, has taken up his own challenge head on.

He is not a technophile, although not averse to the science side of cricket, and most of his work since inheriting the Australia Test squad has been in rebuilding it.

Since the 2006-07 whitewashing of Andrew Flintoff's England, Australia have said goodbye to Warne and Glenn McGrath, two of the most prolific bowlers the sport has ever seen, stellar opening pair Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer and audacious wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.

Over the last decade Australia was jammed with outstanding performers who needed gentle guidance instead of reality-show makeovers.

But alongside captain Ricky Ponting, he has had to prove that Australia's got talent, and allow it to flourish.

It has been unearthed in the shape of unorthodox opener Phillip Hughes, bustling bowler Peter Siddle and burgeoning all-rounder Mitchell Johnson.

His relatively young age - he played against Ponting and Brett Lee, for example - and nine full seasons of state cricket have given him two-fold credibility which Buchanan, whose entire career spanned seven first-class matches, never achieved.

He has been more of a school mate than a school master in his position within the Australian group.

Amongst the decisions facing Nielsen is whether to play Nathan Hauritz, Australia's only specialist spinner

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His experience as head of the Australian academy in Brisbane between 2005 and 2007 also provided him with a first-hand knowledge of the coming crop.

Once again, the similarities with Moores are striking, but whereas the Englishman struggled to adjust to the highest level, the Australian strategy has been vindicated.

Nielsen's orthodox methods at net sessions and expertise as a technical batting coach put him closer to Fletcher than Moores.

He has earned the respect of Australia's leading batsmen through that - although former captain Allan Border, who was on the three-man selection committee, is said to have preferred Tom Moody, the Western Australian who asked to be excluded from the running late on.

Plenty of time has passed since and Australia's fortunes have taken violent jolts up and down.

No-one expected those sporting baggy greens to maintain the success of their illustrious predecessors but failure is hard for Australians to stomach.

So he will no doubt be emphasising the positives from the 2-1 away win in South Africa rather than the loss to the same opposition down under or the campaign loss in India which preceded it.

However it is couched, Australia begin the five-match series shrouded in uncertainty.

Who will bat at number six? Will they play a spinner at all after naming only Nathan Hauritz in the party? Will Brett Lee and Stuart Clark be ready after injury?

Those are the things Nielsen will ponder as he bids to put his own mark on Ashes folklore.