A year can be a long time in cricket. This time 12 months ago Australia was licking its wounds after being humbled 3-1 by England on home soil. Careers were in jeopardy, coaches were being questioned, selectors were being scapegoated and reports were being commissioned.

Fear not, cricket's ‘rightful' order has finally been restored.  Australia has just whitewashed India with a seemingly rejuvenated side.  England - the No.1 side in the world - has already relinquished its three-Test series against Pakistan after being bowled out for a paltry 72 in Abu Dhabi.

So with the old enemy languishing, what better time to look ahead to the 2013 Ashes series?

I've taken the liberty of selecting a 16-man squad for the five Test matches in England.  I accept that such exercises are fraught with danger and are ultimately futile.  But it's a wonderful futility.  What else are sports nuts supposed to do with their time?  It's great fun to look into the future and pretend that unprecedented amounts of power have been invested in us.  I still haven't quite parted with the notion of someday coaching the Saints to their second premiership.

There's a nice balance of youth and experience in the squad.  The likes of James Pattinson, Cummins, Warner, Lyon, Starc and Khawaja must be retained at all costs.  Other youngsters, such as Steve Smith, Mitch Marsh, Ben Cutting and Nic Maddinson aren't quite ready to withstand the rigours of an English tour.

There is some scope for experience. Owing to his exploits against India, Ricky Ponting has been granted the opportunity to accomplish the one thing that motivates him as a cricketer (even if he won't publicly acknowledge it).  Mike Hussey is desperately unlucky to miss out. He takes his omission gracefully, pending a tell-all autobiography.

Some players, such as Trent Copeland, have been selected explicitly because of their suitability to English conditions.  Technique is everything in England, which is why it's a great country to watch cricket.  As Phil Hughes discovered in 2009, any deficiency will be exploited for everything it's worth.

I'm assuming (and sincerely hoping) that Tim Paine's threadbare finger will have miraculously recovered.  Even if he can't keep wicket, he's worth his spot in the squad as a specialist batsman, nominally as a back-up opener.  Matthew Wade is his understudy, following Brad Haddin's Harold Holt-like disappearance on the lush beaches of Guyana.

Ryan Harris will have two bionic legs by 2013, thus ruling him unavailable, despite his public protestations to the contrary.  Mitchell Johnson will have re-invented himself as a middleweight kick-boxer, following a wayward return to Shield cricket.  Simon Katich will be a bare-knuckled fighter in the laneways surrounded Kings Cross.

And there will be the usual chorus of distraught Victorian supporters, following Brad Hodge's omission from the squad (despite reports of an unbeaten quintuple century during a D-Grade matting fixture in Reservoir).

Before I degenerate any further, here is the squad: 

Michael Clarke (c)
Shane Watson (vc)
David Warner
Ricky Ponting
Shaun Marsh
Usman Khawaja
Ed Cowan
Tim Paine (wk)
Matthew Wade (wk)
James Pattinson
Ben Hilfenhaus
Peter Siddle
Nathan Lyon
Pat Cummins
Trent Copeland
Mitchell Starc