Unless England can pull off a minor miracle and claim victory in the fourth and final Test against India this week, allowing Australia to slip into the World Test Championship final, the next time Tim Paine’s side will take the field will be in the home Ashes campaign in December.

That, naturally, will be the headline act next summer but scratch beneath the surface and a keen focus of team management and data boffins over the months ahead will also be on a demanding 2022 touring schedule.

Passports will initially be stamped in February for two Tests in Pakistan, where Australia has not played a Test since Mark Taylor’s side left in 1998. If Pakistan is deemed unsafe, the tour will be ahead in the United Arab Emirates. Then comes a mid-year visit to Sri Lanka, where Australia was beaten 3-0 in 2016, followed by four Tests in India, Australia having not won there since the breakthrough series of 2004.

Spin will have to be a key component of Australia’s attack through most, if not all, of those series, and judging by the pitch in Ahmedabad last week where India, with three frontline spinners, claimed victory inside two days, there is much on the line for local tweakers in the Sheffield Shield over the next year.