IT WAS sunny and warm in the state of Victoria on Thursday, March 15th, 1877, so the records say.

At precisely one o'clock in the afternoon, with the Melbourne Cricket Ground's new grandstand packed for the occasion, the comfortable bearded figure of the Nottinghamshire professional Alfred Shaw delivered one of his slow-medium specials to the Australian opening batsman, Charles Bannerman, and Test cricket to be more precise Anglo-Australian Test cricket, one of the greatest and longest rivalries, fin sport was born.

One hundred and twenty years on, at Edgbaston today, the teams meet for the 286th time, and the enmity, the sense of occasion, and the fervour has diminished not a jot.

As has been the case since Allan Border's marauders came to England eight years ago, it is England who are seeking the holy grail. The last England captain to hold the Ashes was Mike Gatting, who went to Australia a decade ago and won the only two matches of his 23 in charge.

Since then, four series, home and away, have seen Australia win 4-0, 3-0, 4-1 and 3-1 - 14 English losses in 22 matches and just two wins, both of them when the destiny of the Ashes had already been decided.

Perhaps though, the balance is shifting. Since they were galvanised by winning the World Cup in 1987, Australians have gradually established themselves as the master Test cricket race, settling the matter once and for all one afternoon in Kingston, Jamaica, two years ago.

But recently, there have been signs of cracks in the superstructure and since their arrival in this country less than a month ago, Mark Taylor's team have progressed in the sort of uninspired manner that, until recently, might have been regarded as the exclusive domain of English teams abroad.

It would be typically English to offer cautionary tales - Gatting's triumph was preceded by the infamous `can't bat, can't bowl, can't field' jibe but from Taylor's credibility as player and captain, to Shane Warne's fitness and the balance of the team, they have problems.

Taylor's highest Test score of 43 in 20 innings since December 1995 is not a solid credential in a side that has always carried the premise that a captain has to be worth his place as a player first and foremost.

English pessimists would say that a return to form was always sure to coincide with the first innings of the first Test. Optimists however, view his continuing presence in an increasingly dissatisfied outfit as a bonus.

So far, Warne has looked less than fit. Recently, his bowling has been, by his standards, ordinary and significantly, he has not been throwing. Thirty three wickets in eight Tests since the operation on his spinning finger show that the force can be with him. But has he been merely protecting his shoulder, or is there a real problem?

For this match, Australia have jettisoned the strategy - involving just two seamers, Warne's legspin and Michael Bevan's Chinamen - that brought success in South Africa earlier this year.

So Bevan moves one place higher to six, Greg Blewdt, if he has passed a stringent fitness test, will come in at three, Matthew Elliott will open with Taylor, and the pace attack of Glenn McGrath - a superb bowler - and Jason Gillespie, who needs to adjust to a fuller English length, will be augmented by Michael Kasprowicz. They bowl a tight line, to a plan, and rarely deviate from that.

It is years since England were so upbeat at the start of the series. The winning of the Texaco series and the manner of the victory - has elevated the mood of the cricket-following nation. In equalling Peter May's record number of matches as England captain, Atherton is aware that at last he has been given some continuity after the Test successes at the end of the winter.