Never before has the entire complexion of an Ashes series been turned upside down less than three weeks before a ball is bowled.
Darren Lehmann might not win Australia back the urn, but he’s given hope to what seemed a hopeless cause.
Just hours after being handed the coaching job, Lehmann was in front of the cameras.
Without the slightest hint of a blink or a stutter, he proclaimed Australia could win the series.
Without him, a string of off-field dramas in 2013 had the tourists looking like sitting ducks.
But Lehmann came across as an overnight miracle worker.
That’s even though in reality, Australia’s batting line-up is as flaky as it was under Mickey Arthur.
The big question should still be, can Australia score enough runs to trouble England?
Instead, the focus is on Lehmann.
Like football coaching greats Wayne Bennett and Kevin Sheedy, Lehmann has already displayed the gift of deceptively taking attention away from his team when they’re under the pump.
Lehmann has a personality as big as his lookalike Shrek, and more importantly, he has the respect of every cricketer in his dressing room.
How else can you explain a coach being sacked 16 days before an Ashes campaign translating into a triumph.
Lehmann considers it his job to deflect attention from his players.
“You’d hope so. I just hope I can take pressure off all the players to be perfectly honest,” he says.
“We’ve got to let them play the game of cricket. It’s a tough enough game at the best of times.
“My role is to make sure they’re enjoying themselves on and off the field, learning about the game and making sure we’re playing a positive brand of cricket. That’s what we’ll do.”
It’s a simple message but it’s clearly something that wasn’t happening under Arthur.
The next five Tests will go a long way to explaining what percentage of winning an Ashes series can be put down to attitude.
The change in coach has immediately improved the mood and outlook, but cracks in the batting order, splits in personality and discipline issues aren’t as easily fixed.
Lehmann has the people skills to bring people together.
And he has the cricketing brain to make them better players.
But is it going to happen quickly enough for Australia to avoid losing three consecutive Ashes series for the first time since 1956?
Perhaps the player most like Lehmann in the Australian line-up is vice-captain Brad Haddin.
Tough, uncompromising and respected.
Haddin acknowledges he’s built his leadership skills on the same pillars of delivering brutal honesty to those around him.
The New South Welshman has an excellent record against England – scoring two of his three Test centuries against them and averaging 45.57.
Michael Clarke is the most experienced Ashes campaigner in either camp and is the only Australian to have experienced what it feels like to beat the Poms in a series.
Peter Siddle also has positive memories from his hat-trick in Brisbane in 2010-11.
Haddin says the Ashes stage should bring out the best in every player, regardless of the coach.
“From a personal point of view this is the stage you want to play on,” Haddin says.
“There’s no better theatre.
“This is as big as it gets for an Australian cricketer and it’s the best time you have as a cricketer.
“It’s the toughest cricket and the whole country whether it be in the UK or in Australia are behind the result. This is where you want to challenge yourself to see where your game is at.
“You can’t hide anywhere.”
There is an added psychological aspect to the series as well. As soon as the five Tests are done, England will jump on a plane to fight for the urn again down under over the Australian summer.
It’s the first time back-to-back Ashes series have been staged since 1975.
On that occasion, Australia won both.
The undoubted strength for Australia in the seaming English conditions and then the hard and fast decks back home, will be their squad of fast bowlers.
Led by young bucks James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, the quicks are aggressive, skillful and stacked with depth and variety.
“All in all we’ve got some great options and guys are going to be unlucky not to get a game,” says former Test bowler, Damien Fleming.
“That shows we’ve got a strength in that particular skill. A Ryan Harris or James Faulkner, they may not play the first Test but you know they’re quality bowlers.”
However, in the countdown to the first Test at Trent Bridge, the batting line-up can’t be spoken about with the same certainty.
Shane Watson and Chris Rogers form a solid opening base, although they’ve never partnered each other before.
Michael Clarke looks set to elevate himself from No.5 to 4, while Phil Hughes will be reinvented as a middle order batsman.
Haddin is hitting the ball sweetly and the likes of Ed Cowan, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja have made runs in the tour matches – it’s just a matter of where they fit into the jigsaw.
David Warner, suspended through the lead-up for punching an England opponent, remains in contention to issue a more conventional style beating to the old enemy as a lower order hitter.
Positions are unknown, but the batsmen know the game plan under Lehmann.
Back yourself and be aggressive.
Hughes, like many in the Australian team, is from an age group where Lehmann was a childhood hero.
He admired him then and is taking confidence from him now.
“I studied him when I was younger, I loved watching him play,” Hughes says.
“The aggressive way he went about it, it’s something I try and do as well. A number of the boys in the team model our games around him.
“He’s really putting that positive frame of mind in place.”
Winning in England will be a stretch for Australia, even under Lehmann.
But the one certainty is they won’t die wondering.