That England vs New Zealand series was cute wasn't it? Both teams have adopted this funky new style cricket where they play freely, expressing themselves as they would in their backyard and genuinely doing anything in their power to win cricket games. It was so cute in fact that both teams quite admired each other and fans from both nations were quick to praise, far too cute.

Playing in this particular fashion is a relatively new concept for both England and New Zealand. The Black Caps have never really been good enough to approach cricket games with no other intent but winning, nor have they had much hunger to with kiwi cricketers rather comfortable in earning their cash merely by playing cricket. 

England, well, playing in a fun, entertaining manner isn't really in their DNA. A period of Test success came in conjunction with a deep point, safety was always a priority but to their credit they made grinding out Test wins work for them. However, having fun and playing without restrictions or without feeling like some bloke in an office isn't going to look on that swashbuckling drive too fondly, are new concepts for England.

That produced a fun tour of England, entertaining cricket with lots of action but now we are going to see this taken up a notch. Australia have arrived in England ahead of the Ashes and any cuteness has already vanished as the hard-edged Aussies bring their own, original style of cricket to the international stage.

Mike Hesson called the Black Caps tour of England as the entree for the Ashes, which was bang on in the sense that we got a few mouthfuls of fun, aggressive cricket. Now we're going to get the main course.

England and the Black Caps are in the early stages of this new identity while Australia have had this identity for aslong as I can remember. The Australian cricketing culture is so deeply embedded that they have had to find new levels, they have graduated from attacking strokes and plenty of slip fielders to new heights.

Their aggression isn't merely superficial, it's a part of every aspect of their cricket. They are the originals, the team who always scored around four runs an over moving the game along quickly enough that a result was always possible. They're so good at being aggressive whether it be taking wickets or scoring runs that they know that all out attack sometimes doesn't quite work. In those cases, aggression is found in their ability to beat you to a pulp, to dry up the runs and torture you until you crumble. They've gone full circle.

It wouldn't be a talk about Australia's aggression without sledging, which is anything but cute but highlights just how expertly aggressive Australia are. While the Black Caps and England battle public perception - even as they venture down this entertaining path, people still want them to not get too cray cray - the Australians simply don't give a fuck.

Which, it could be argued is the ultimate level of aggression. They might say some nasty things, they may threaten you and they are well within their right to because they'll be quick to have a beer with you after the game, but on the field, in that cauldron, Australia have no fucks to give.

This aggression is rooted so deep in Australian cricket that everyone is comfortable with it and everyone knows how to go about their role with that ruthlessness. We've had the cute entree, we've seen how nice it is to play a superficial brand of 'aggressive' cricket but I get the feeling that Australia are going to remind us all as to how to really go about winning cricket games.