They plucked out Mitchell Johnson midway through the ODI tour of India last November to pitchfork him into the cauldron of a much-hyped battle most thought England would win.
Johnson was the outstanding bowler for Australia in India, bowling with fire and pace and reducing bounce-challenged batsmen like Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina to footnotes in the series. With just the final game to go, and the series level at 2-2, Australia had a chance to humble the top-ranked ODI team at home.
Aussie selectors, however, risked the series loss and asked Johnson to take the first flight out of India to prepare for the Ashes.
During the India tour, the selectors could sense that the fast bowler was bowling with great rhythm not seen for a long, long time. Australia did lose the final game and the series and Johnson's absence was acutely felt.
But look at what that inspired move did for Australia. Johnson, drooping moustache and all, became the darling of the country as he demolished a terrorized English team to lead Australia to one of their greatest and most satisfying cricketing achievements.
The Australian team management also made sure that the pressure on England was incessant by playing an unchanged eleven throughout the series. Obviously, there was good synergy between the selectors and the team management who planned things well in advance, picking the men who they thought would do the job and then sticking to them.
In fact, the lets-bring-the-Ashes-home campaign began in mid 2013 itself when Darren Lehmann replaced Mickey Arthur as coach in a sudden development, then seen as a paranoid reaction by Cricket Australia to the team's many on and off-field woes.
There are lessons here for the Indian team management and the cricket board ( BCCI). To begin with, the series illustrated how much importance top teams give to Test cricket.
Of course, an Ashes series is the 'Holy Grail' for the two countries. But, otherwise too, these teams, and some others, try to have Tests as the major component of their calendars.
The Aussies sacrificed a one-day series win in a bid to wrest the urn back from the arch rivals. It gave Johnson a few extra days to prepare and plan for the big battle. And it did, in the final analysis, make a big difference.
With the focus scattered due to Indian cricket's involvement with various formats, IPL and sundry other distractions, the nature of India's association with Test cricket has undergone a sea change.
Test cricket, the original and the most testing form of the sport, has lost its pre-eminence in this country which has a bearing on the performance of the team, often forcing it to play below potential. India's tour of South Africa is the most recent example of BCCI's casual and even whimsical approach towards planning tours which ultimately puts their own team at a disadvantage.
It's instructive what Lehmann said immediately after England were done and dusted. "Our next mission is to win overseas," 'Boof' thundered. And even before the day had passed into night, an upbeat Aussie camp began talking aggressively about its chances in South Africa, their next port of call.
An abject overseas record has been a blot on the Indian team which has otherwise scaled great heights in recent years. Australia's epochal Ashes triumph shows how quickly a team can come back from the dumps to assert itself as top dogs.
In 2013, they lost 4-0 in India and 3-0 in England, two potentially debilitating setbacks. However, they used these defeats -- Michael Clarke has said the seeds of Ashes success were sown during the disastrous Indian tour - to look honestly at problem areas and harvest the anger and sense of humiliation in a positive manner in such stirring fashion that the entire world has stood up and clapped.
The Indian team also lost 4-0 both in England and Australia recently but they can take inspiration from the turnaround Down Under. A lot is going for them but the vision statement and intent has to come from the board. And there lies the catch.
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