Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen may have been hogging the Ashes headlines in England but Australia captain Ricky Ponting has said Andrew Symonds can star when the teams meet for the first time this season in Monday's Twenty20 international at the Rose Bowl. Flintoff and Pietersen are undeniably two of the most dynamic batsmen on the international stage.
And the South Africa-born Pietersen, 24, enhanced his growing reputation by smashing an 80-ball 77 in England's crushing 153 run warm-up 50-over win Saturday against his Hampshire team-mates at the Rose Bowl here Saturday.
However 30-year-old Queenslander Symonds, who could have played for England after being born in Birmingham, is no slouch.
Last season, playing for English county Kent, Symonds scored 112 off 43 balls in a Twenty20 match against Middlesex - and his hundred was up in 34 deliveries.
And Symonds re-affirmed his liking for pulverising county attacks Saturday with an unbeaten 92 off 59 balls in Australia's 95-run win against Leicestershire.
Now Ponting, in front of what is set to be a 15,000 sell-out Rose Bowl crowd, is set to give Symonds every chance to shine once more.
Australia have won the last eight Ashes series and while Monday's game will not end the hype - the first Test doesn't start until July 21 and the teams are set to meet eight times before then, with both sides also playing Bangladesh - it will at least provide a few pointers as to how the season might pan out.
Flintoff, the ICC's world one-day player of the year in 2004, is a key man for England, now second behind leaders Australia in the Test rankings, in all forms of cricket.
When the teams last met in a one-day international, in the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy at Edgbaston in September, England won by six wickets to end a run of 14 consecutive one-day defeats against Australia.
However, England coach Duncan Fletcher, speaking at the Rose Bowl on Sunday, said: "We felt the way we played at Edgbaston, we can improve on that. We don't know what our limit is at this stage. That's what makes it exciting." Ponting, since arriving in England, has repeatedly stressed the importance of the one-dayers in the build-up to the Ashes.
But England captain Michael Vaughan, perhaps conscious of the dangers of talking the games up too much only to suffer defeat later on, has tried to downplay their impact on the Tests.
Not that either man was setting too much store by Monday's match, which will be the first Twenty20 international to be played in England.
In February, Australia beat New Zealand by 44 runs in Auckland in the first Twenty 20 international, with the Kiwis emphasising the 'fun' aspect of a game yet to acquire the standing associated with one-dayers and Tests by wearing afro wigs and fake sideburns.