Amid the welter of sports news in late August, news of the passing of Ken Shuttleworth gained only modest coverage.

The former Lancashire, Leicestershire and England fast bowler died aged 80, his cricket career one of promise which never quite came to fruition.

That can sound a harsh judgement on someone who played for his country but five Tests was the extent of Shuttleworth’s international career, although he did have the honour of taking the first wicket for England in one-day internationals. The cancellation of the Melbourne Test in January 1971 – the first four days of the match had been rained off – prompted the authorities to play a 40-over game on the scheduled fifth day.

From such expedience, the history of the game took a whole new turn.

But his departure means just five members of the 1970-71 Ashes-winning squad remain with us – Sir Geoffrey Boycott, John Snow, Alan Knott, Bob Taylor and Keith Fletcher. Perhaps that’s not surprising given the tour was 55 years ago but it is sobering that Ray Illingworth, John Edrich, Brian Luckhurst, Colin Cowdrey, John Hampshire, Basil D’Oliveira, Derek Underwood, Peter Lever, Bob Willis, Don Wilson and Alan Ward have all departed.

And if you are wondering if this maudlin theme is worthy, don’t forget that another Ashes party will soon be named and take with it England’s hopes of winning back the urn. And the chances of success should be weighed upon the fact that in 21 tours of Australia since the Second World War, only five have returned victorious.

Test series in Australia are generally won by the team with the best fast bowlers. In 1954-55, England sprung Frank Tyson upon the hosts – backed up by Brian Statham – and “Typhoon Tyson” blew them away.

In 1970-71, Snow was at his peak to ensure Illingworth’s men won 2-0, despite gaining not one leg before wicket appeal decision through the series. Shuttleworth took five for 47 on his debut in Brisbane – he had played against Rest of the World the previous summer in a match which subsequently lost Test status – but by the end of the series had lost his place to the stripling Willis, called up after barely a season with Surrey after Ward returned home injured.

Willis fronted an attack also containing Ian Botham, Mike Hendrick, Chris Old and John Lever which pounded the Packer-denuded Australians 5-1 in 1978-79 while, in 1986-87, Graham Dilley led a line-up still including Botham plus Phil DeFreitas and Gladstone Small. The only other successful Ashes tour since then came in 2010-11, Jimmy Anderson combining with Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan to claim a 3-1 triumph.

On that tour, England’s supporters enjoyed poking fun at Mitchell Johnson’s waywardness but he took terrible revenge three years later and since then the trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have held sway for much of the time.

The trio are still in business, which underlines why Australia must still be regarded as favourites in their own country. But if Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Ben Stokes, Josh Tongue and company can stay fit and make the most of conditions – and a shaky Australian top order – then they might return victorious in much the same way as Illingworth, Snow and Shuttleworth did all those years ago.

By Richard Spiller