Ashes 2019: England’s World Cup winners ready to seize chance of history with old enemy in town

Imagine scaling Everest only to be told on the way back down there was another mountain of similar size just down the road, then given three weeks to prepare the climb.

That is, give or take a healthy dollop of sporting hyperbole, the demand being placed on some of England's leading cricketers as they prepare to follow up their historic World Cup success with the small matter of a home Ashes series.

When Neil Armstrong returned from the first moon landing in 1969, he traded his spacesuit for a backroom job, but for Joe Root and company one small step at Lord's is also one giant leap towards their biggest Test series in years.

Of course, such comparisons are both lazy and facile; sport cannot and should not be held alongside the greatest feats of human exploration. As 8.3million captivated viewers witnessed on July 14, it can feel considerably more essential.

There, is though, no rest for the wickets.

Root must relocate his Test captain's blazer and return to his role as the frontman of England's red-ball team - no pressure at all in picking up where his one-day counterpart Eoin Morgan left off - and will instantly swap new memories for old demons.

His first trip to Australia as England skipper in 2017/18 ended in the worst possible way, bed-bound for the closing moments of a 4-0 series defeat after being struck by a debilitating bout of viral gastroenteritis.

He will cherish forever his World Cup winners' medal but no England captain will ever rest easy as long as the urn is in Australian hands.

Root will be buoyed by the knowledge that he will be flanked by Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. The pair will forever go down as the batsmen whose twin partnerships - one lasting more than 21 overs, the other just six decisive balls - carried England to their famous win at Lord's.

After Stokes' single-minded heroics and Buttler's role in the run-out that ended a 44-year chase for the trophy, who else would he want at his side in the trenches?

"I don't think anything will faze me again," a wide-eyed Buttler said at the time.

As for Stokes, barely 12 hours had passed since his crowning achievement when he cast an eye towards the old enemy.

"We may be world champions but also want to be Ashes winners as well. When it comes to the Ashes it's going to be heads on again because it has to be," he offered.

It is worth remembering both men missed the previous defeat Down Under, Stokes as a result of an impending court appearance and Buttler simply unselected. There is unfinished business and these two now know just how to wrap things up in style.

There will be others pulling double duty too - with Jason Roy and Jofra Archer in line to swap their retro blue shirts for England whites - but what of the others?

Among the red-ball specialists are a couple of old hands with more than a thousand Test scalps under their belts. James Anderson and Stuart Broad are proud, fierce competitors who have had their eyes on the August 1 curtain-raiser at Edgbaston for months.

They have lived every moment of their team-mates' World Cup journey but this is their stage and they must now do everything they can to find their own place in the public's imagination, extending cricket's golden summer for a few more weeks.

Do not forget that Ashley Giles, director of men's cricket at the ECB, called for more seamer-friendly balls after consulting the pair. If England are to win, Anderson and Broad are sure to be at the fore.

After five Tests in six weeks, things wrap up at The Oval, the same ground where more than a thousand schoolchildren swarmed the triumphant, hungover heroes as they paraded the World Cup trophy and posed for pictures.

By then it will be deep into September and the Premier League will be back in full swing and emitting its usual magnetic pull.

But add an Ashes success to what has already come, throw in some more knuckle-chewing drama and those same children might continue using schoolbags for stumps as well as jumpers for goalposts.