How are Australia shaping up ahead of the Ashes?

Their star all-rounder seems poised to miss the series; their batting, with a few exceptions, is a little brittle; and there is no one with ferocious pace - yep, England have issues ahead of the Ashes.

But so do Australia.

You may or may not agree with Sir Ian Botham's assertion towards the back-end of the English summer that "the Australian side is one of the poorest I've seen for a long time" but you'd be hard pressed to call it one of the strongest.

One of their quandaries, coincidentally, is in Ben Stokes' position. England's No 6 may not travel down under - he certainly won't be on the plane with the rest of the team when they fly out on Saturday - but at least they know who he is.

Glenn Maxwell was deployed in that position on the turning tracks of Bangladesh in August and September, meaning each of his seven Test appearances, stretching back as far as 2013, have come in Asia.

They haven't been altogether successful, with a score of 104 against India in Ranchi this year Maxwell's only innings of note and the all-rounder only averaging 26.07 from 14 innings.

He retains the support of Australia fans - a quarter of those polled on cricket.com.au picking him to bat at No 6 in the Ashes, ahead of Travis Head (19 per cent) and Shaun Marsh (17 per cent) - as well as former Baggy Greens skipper Steve Waugh.

"He's inconsistent but he's a match winner and there are not too many of them around," Waugh said recently. "If he's managed the right way he can be a force in Test match cricket, there's no doubt about that. With him he looks like a confidence player so if he gets picked I would say to him 'you are playing every Test match' and then you will get the benefit."

Yet it seems the selectors remain unconvinced. "It's a really open race," Australia team performance chief Pat Howard was quoted as saying by Cricinfo. "We want the players to know there is pressure and if you can turn up at the start of the Sheffield Shield season there is an opportunity and [you can] put yourself in the frame."

Howard also adding that the position is "a batting role first and your skills after that are more than welcome" opens up a lot of possibilities, with out-and-out batsmen Marsh and Joe Burns; Maxwell and Head, who offer a spin option; and Moises Henriques, Marcus Stoinis and Hilton Cartwright, a trio of seam-bowling batsmen, in the frame.

Mitchell Marsh may be, too, though with the 26-year-old - who has signed for Surrey for the 2018 domestic season - not set to resume bowling until later this year following shoulder surgery, and averaging under 22 with the bat from his 21 Tests, perhaps he is an outsider.

England would appear to have the advantage in the No 7 berth (if that is indeed where Jonny Bairstow bats in the series) with his stats (2,824 runs in 45 Tests at a lick under 40) dwarfing those of expected rival gloveman Matthew Wade (886 runs in 22 Tests at 28.58). "England have a wicketkeeper-batsman who twice as good as anything they've got," said Sky Sports' David Lloyd.

Plus, Australia's fleet of fast bowlers has been afflicted by injury problems - James Pattinson (back) has been ruled out of The Ashes and the metronomic Josh Hazlewood (side strain) has seen his return to Sheffield Shield action delayed.

Bumble also doubts how speedster Pat Cummins will hold up - "there is nobody who has been as injury prone, if they can get him to stand up for three matches then they've won the lottery! - and Cummins has even admitted that a five-Test series will be "brutal" in a Sydney Morning Herald article. A lot will rest on Mitchell Starc, only recently back from a foot ailment himself.

Batting-wise, skipper Steve Smith and his firebrand deputy David Warner are the standouts, totalling two tons each as Australia hammered England 5-0 in the 2013-14 Ashes, and over 600 runs in their seven Tests this calendar year. Joe Root has scored more in the same period, mind.

Usman Khawaja, too, looks a shoo-in at No 3, despite a perceived lack of nous against spin seeing him drop in and out of the side during the subcontinental tours to Bangladesh and India - and subsequently give the selectors a verbal volley.

"It creates a lot of instability in the team, I reckon, going in and out for everyone. It's very hard to develop your game and play some consistent cricket if you're not getting consistent opportunities overseas, which I haven't been getting," he told ABC Radio.

On Australian tracks, however, the left-hander - a far superior player to the one England combated in 2011 and 2013 - is a run-machine, with four centuries and six fifties in his 13 Tests at an average approaching 64. That first-drop batting position is all but his.

Something sinister would also have to occur for Middlesbrough-born Matt Renshaw not to partner Warner up top and Peter Handscomb not to retain his No 5 berth.

Renshaw, an obdurate opener in the Alastair Cook mould, dare I say, has had a sketchy 2017 in the main, though it began brilliantly with score of 184 from 293 deliveries against Pakistan in Sydney that showed he has the required temperament.

Handscomb, meanwhile, became the first player in Test history not to have been dismissed below 50 in any of his first seven innings, a run which included two centuries in his opening four matches. He's bound to play against England, just don't expect him to keep wicket. "I don't particularly want to keep in long-form cricket. It's too hard for me, especially because I want to bat in the top five."

Still, Renshaw and Handscomb are Ashes novices and you never quite know how players will react under that scrutiny. Perhaps that's where Nathan Lyon will come in handy, a veteran of three Ashes series now, who scooped 19 wickets in 2013-14, a tally that often goes unnoticed what with Mitchell Johnson's 37 scalps at 13.97, understandably, hogging the headlines during that whitewash.

Lyon has been stellar in 2017, with 46 wickets at 21.95 moving him onto 269 for his career and seventh on the all-time list for Australia, above Richie Benaud and Jason Gillespie no less. Shane Warne is the only spinner ahead of him.

With Lyon, Warner, Smith and Starc forming the crux of the side, Australia will begin the Ashes as favourites, but there are areas for Joe Root's side to expose - with or without their star all-rounder. Isn't that right, Bumble? "England have absolutely nothing to fear."