I had serious doubts over whether I’d be able to get up for the Ashes tour of England in 2013 and I bugged Alex constantly. I’d tell him I was struggling with this or that, he’d tell me I’d be right, which would make me feel a bit better and then we’d repeat the conversation in a few days’ time. I’m sure it was very annoying for Alex, but he is blessed with the patience of a saint and happily listened to all my gripes and concerns before giving me a few words of encouragement.

In the back of my mind I knew there had to be some doubt as to whether they’d pick me even if I was fit. Through form and fitness I hadn’t put any runs on the board for Australia for over a year, so it was a great relief when I did get the call to say I was in the squad to go to England.

I was included in the Australia A squad, which left before the Ashes side. I was able to get in the bowling I needed, while still rehabbing under the supervision of our strength and conditioning guys. I’ll be forever grateful that they did because, even though I didn’t play much with Australia A, the early start was what allowed me to take part in that Ashes series.

The ODI squad was in England playing in the ICC Champions Trophy at the same time. The Ashes squad would be made up of players from that squad, the Australia A team, and a few players that were coming out from Australia to join us.

The Australia A team was in Belfast preparing to take on Ireland in a four-day game when we heard about Dave Warner’s unfortunate dust-up with Joe Root in a Birmingham bar.

It was disappointing and Davey knew he’d let himself and the team down. It was an unwanted distraction over a bit of mucking around in a pub, but that’s all it takes sometimes. It wasn’t like he knocked him out or anything close to that, but Davey certainly paid a big price. We paid a price too because there’s no doubt our team is better with him in it.

In a strange way it might have been the making of Dave Warner as a cricketer, though. It was a harsh lesson, but one he’ll probably tell you himself he needed to learn.

There was even more drama in store for us, though.

We were in Bristol for the last game of the Australia A tour, where Darren Lehmann was the assistant coach. Towards the end of the game, Boof went missing, which was a bit odd. Peter Siddle came up to me and he reckoned something was going on. Boof was always there on the sideline offering advice and encouraging words when we were out on the park. But he was nowhere to be seen for a few hours there.

He showed up again around the time we finished and he was being very coy. I asked where he’d been, but he just said that he had a few things to take care of.

Of course, Mickey Arthur was sacked that day and Boof was brought in to replace him as coach of the national team. Boof was sworn to secrecy until Cricket Australia made all the proper arrangements. CA’s chief executive, James Sutherland, and general manager of team performance, Pat Howard, were over and they would be the ones to inform everyone and then make the move public.

I was shocked when I found out—we all were. Mickey had been in charge since Tim Nielsen resigned late in 2011. Unfortunately, I was injured for a fair bit of that period and I’d only played a handful of games under him. He’s a great bloke and you don’t like to see anyone lose their job, but CA clearly felt the need to go in another direction and they acted.

I went with a few of the boys to visit Mickey in his room and it was quite emotional. We all wanted to thank him for what he’d done for us and wish him all the best, but he was clearly devastated and I felt like our words didn’t mean much at the time.

The timing of it, so close to the start of an Ashes campaign, clearly wasn’t ideal, but any misgivings I had were put to rest when I was told Darren Lehmann would be taking over. To have someone I really respected and had such a long history with in charge of the Australian team would not only be good for me, but also for the whole team: I knew how good a coach he was. He’d done a great job with Queensland and the boys were all really impressed with what he’d been able to do in the few short weeks on the Australia A tour. He was a popular choice.

The rest of the Ashes squad was coming up to join us in Bristol the next day and Michael Clarke sat in the press conference where Boof was announced as our new coach. The press were all over it because it was obviously a huge story, but we had to try to put that behind us as quickly as we could.

It was good to hook up with the rest of the Ashes squad and we kept moving on to Somerset, where we were due to play our first tour match. Here we had our first official meeting with the new coach.

Boof presented a vision that wasn’t too dissimilar to the one he gave us when he took over at Queensland. He wasn’t going to change who he was or what he believed in depending on the circumstances. He was taking over the biggest job in Australian cricket at a critical time, but he still stood up there and said, ‘This is me, this is what I’m about and this is what I expect of you.’ It was a simple but effective message.

He put up a Cricket Australia slide of a list of trademarks or behaviours that we had put together as a team. Nothing groundbreaking, most elite sports teams do the same thing. Stuff like, ‘I will leave no stone unturned in my preparation …’ But he grabbed a texta and drew a big line across the whole list. His point was that every sentence started with the word ‘I’ and that under his guidance there would be no ‘I’ any more—it was ‘we’ from that point on.

We finished the meeting and went straight to the pub. Everyone had a beer and we just got on with it.

Boof felt really bad for Mickey—we all did—but we had a job to do and that was to move forward and win the Ashes. He adjusted to the role so smoothly that it quickly seemed like he’d been in charge for ages.

I played against Worcestershire in our last warm-up game before the first Test. I knew my form wasn’t quite there even before Boof came and told me he didn’t think I would be right to go when the series kicked off at Trent Bridge.

I got a couple of wickets in each innings, but my pace wasn’t where it needed to be. My Achilles and knee issues meant that I hadn’t bowled enough to find my rhythm. I was disappointed to hear that, but I knew he was right.

It was tough watching the boys start the series from the dressing-room, but I continued to increase my workload in the nets the first two days of the Test and then had a breakthrough on day three.

I’d been a bit worried about a few different parts of my action and how my body was holding up, but I decided to go out and really put it all on the line, which was an approach that had worked for me in the past. I went out to the practice pitch, which was actually out on the ground, with Ali de Winter, our bowling coach, during the lunch break and had a session that really set up my whole Ashes campaign. Something just seemed to click and I felt like I’d found the rhythm that had eluded me so far on the tour. My Achilles felt good, my knee was okay and they were coming out of my hand better than they had in months: I was ready to go.

That first Test was a tough one to watch, though. We played well in patches with some excellent individual performances, like Peter Siddle’s five-for in the first innings and Ashton Agar’s brilliant 98 on debut. But we couldn’t get over the line.

It was great to see Ash come in and do what he did. He hadn’t even been spoken of in terms of playing Test cricket in the weeks leading up to the series, but the way that he handled himself after being given that opportunity was really impressive. His innings certainly gave us a sniff after we were in huge trouble at 9–117 in reply to England’s first innings of 215.

Stuart Broad’s refusal to walk after nicking one to Michael Clarke at first slip when England was 6–297 was a massive talking point. We were angry about it at the time, but he doesn’t have to walk if he doesn’t want to—those are the rules. It didn’t look great and I’d like to think I would walk in the same situation, but he was well within his rights to stand his ground if the umpire doesn’t do his job and give him out.

With 311 to chase for the win, the boys did a great job on a tricky fifth-day wicket, but fell 14 runs short. We were shattered that we lost that game, but we felt that we’d taken some positive steps and it was great to see Ash get his career off on the right foot.

It seems strange to say it but, even though we lost, the group felt really strong. We’d been through a bit already, it felt like we were under siege a bit when the Dave Warner/Mickey Arthur stuff happened, so to come out and play like that for the new coach really seemed to bring everyone closer.

I was walking across the hallowed turf at Lord’s when I found out I had been picked for the second Test.

We’d just finished our main training session and I was on my way back to the dressing-room when I saw Boof walking towards me with Rod Marsh, who had been on the National Selection Panel since late 2011.

Boof told me not to react to what he was about to say, because there were a few media types with cameras around the place. When he told me I was in the side to play in the second Test, I broke out into a huge smile and immediately got told off by Boof because they always try to keep team selection news under wraps for as long as they can.

I thought our bowlers had done a decent job in the first Test and I didn’t think I was a shot to get back in, so it was a great surprise. It had been over a year since I’d played my last Test against the West Indies over in the Caribbean. To be able to shake off my injury concerns and fulfil a long-held dream to play a Test match at the home of cricket was more than I could have hoped for.

My last experience of Lord’s, when I’d suffered a reoccurrence of my knee injury in the one-dayer against England in 2010, had been a disappointing one. I was determined to have a better time of it this time around.

Lord’s is such a magical ground—the Father Time weather-vane, the Long Room, the pavilion, the honour boards, the slope of the ground—it all combines to make playing cricket there something special. Even the lunches are the best in world cricket!

Another part of what makes a Lord’s Test match so great is that you get to meet Her Majesty the Queen. It was quite a surreal feeling to be out on the ground on the first day of play, but then to suddenly have the Queen standing in front of me was something I’ll never forget.

She actually stopped in front of me as she came down the line of players and said something about bringing the nice weather with us. I don’t remember what I said because my mind was reeling. She’s only a small lady, but she’s a massive figure on the world scene, and it was a real honour to meet her. I could just imagine what my dad and grandparent’s would have made of that, as former subjects.

I opened the bowling with James Pattinson. Patto came on at the Nursery end and I came from the Pavilion end. Bowling at Lord’s is a little different to most other grounds because of the famous slope of the wicket.

I didn’t really have a preference as to which end I bowled from, but I know a lot of bowlers have strong feelings about where they operate from at Lord’s because they feel the slope is a big factor. Standing at the top of your mark from the Pavilion end, the left edge of the pitch is higher than the right edge, which is why it’s referred to as bowling ‘down the slope’ when you come in from that end. Apparently the northern end of the ground is about 2.5 metres higher than the southern end, which is quite amazing.

The theory is that it’s quite difficult to swing the ball away from right-handed batsmen when you’re bowling down the slope at them, but I was reasonably happy with the movement I was able to get both ways.

Glenn McGrath was spending a bit of time with the team at the time and it was really helpful to be able to pick his brain because he bowled almost exclusively from the Pavilion end during his career—with great success.

We got off to a good start that morning with Shane Watson striking first to dismiss Alastair Cook before I managed to trap Joe Root in front and then get Kevin Pietersen edging to Brad Haddin. We had to have them 3–28.

England really dug in, though, and we were disappointed when they were 7–289 at stumps and went on to score 361. I’d looked at the honour boards in the grand old pavilion with great envy, so to be able to take a five-for in that innings and get my own name up there was really humbling.

Jimmy Anderson edged one to Hadds for my five-for. Holding that ball up to the crowd at that storied ground will always be a special moment for me. Unfortunately, things started to get away from us as the Test progressed. We didn’t bat well and we were all out for 128 before England went back in and took the match away from us with 7–349 in their second innings.

Set a target of 583, we were all out for 235. To lose by 347 runs is a disappointing loss in anyone’s language. To get so close in the first Test and then serve up something like that in the second was a huge disappointment for all of us. I could tell Boof was angry, but he has a good way of getting his point across without flying off the handle. He didn’t need to say much, to be honest, because we all knew the areas we hadn’t performed well in. We would have to work hard before the third Test at Old Trafford.

Being on a long tour like the Ashes can be quite mentally draining, but Boof and his management team made sure we had opportunities to spend a bit of down time with our partners and families.

Most of the guys who played at Lord’s were excused from the tour match against Sussex before the third Test and I stayed back in London with Shane Watson, Peter Siddle and Chris Rogers. Cherie had flown out to join me just before the first Test and it was just as well she had because I would probably have spent most of those rest days in bed if she wasn’t there.

I was very sore after my first Test in over a year, but Cherie wasn’t having any of my complaining. We stayed at a great hotel called the Royal Garden, just near Kensington Palace and Hyde Park. It’s a brilliant part of the city and Cherie got me up and outside walking around. I love London as a city and the weather was fantastic, so I enjoyed having a look around and it helped me work out a few sore spots as well.

Gav had flown over with his family as well so it was great to be able to spend a bit of time with them too.

We hired a car and drove the two hours down to Hove on the south coast to watch a bit of the tour match against Sussex and then we drove ourselves up to Manchester. It was a good five-hour trip and it was great to be able to spend some time with Cherie and see a few of the sights.

We got some bad news ahead of the third Test: James Pattinson was sent home with stress fractures in his lower back. I’d gotten to know James quite well and I was shattered for him given the amount of work he’d done to get himself fit again. You never like to lose a teammate from a tour; I’d been in his position before and knew how he was feeling. We were all disappointed for him.

Preparing properly for a Test match is always important, but possibly even more so when you’re on a long tour. There was a fair bit of science behind a bowler’s preparation by the time I arrived on the Australian scene. The conditioning guys made sure you were ready to go at just the right time.

Basically, I’d work backwards from standing at the top of my mark to bowl my first ball of a Test. It’s all about making sure you’ve got just the right bowling load into you when you arrive at that point, and that varies between different bowlers.

Two days out from a Test is the big training day for us. I generally like to get out and have a good bowl, which is normally about 6 to 8 overs in the nets. Then I have a bat and a decent workout.

If that day goes to plan and I’m feeling good then the day before a Test will generally be a bit of a catching session, something light. Or if Alex or I don’t feel like I’ve got enough done the day before then I’ll bowl another over or two to top up my preparation.

Each time we bowl in the nets we make a note of how many balls we’ve bowled that session. It all goes into a graph that plots our progress. A week out, our conditioning guys might say that I need to have 180 balls under my belt by the time I get to two days out from a Test.

It’s quite a juggling act to get yourself at the right level. You don’t want to be too fatigued, but you want to feel like you’ve got your eye in.

I always wake up with good nerves and excitement the morning of a Test match. Generally, that’s pretty early and I’ll get downstairs and have some breakfast, although I don’t generally eat much before a day’s play. There’s usually an early bus to the ground and then a slightly later one that most of the guys will be on. I like to be on that main bus on the first day of a Test because I like to arrive at the ground as a team.

I don’t have any superstitions or rituals with my preparation on match day, but the main thing is I don’t like to feel rushed. Like most things in life, if I feel like I’ve done everything I can then that gives me the base of confidence I need to perform.

We were determined to hit back hard after a poor showing at Lord’s, and we did, but England still retained the Ashes at Old Trafford.

We batted very well, the bowlers did their bit and I’m certain we would have won that Test match if we’d had a decent run with the weather. You’re not going to lose too many matches if you declare for 527 in your first innings.

Pup made a brilliant 187 with Chris Rogers, Steve Smith, Brad Haddin and Mitch Starc making half-centuries, and it was pretty obvious early on that England was content to play for the draw. Sidds was our best bowler with four-for as we bowled them out for 368, which they made at a pedestrian 2.63 runs an over. I got a couple of wickets, Trott and Bell, but I wasn’t happy with my line on a few occasions.

We lost wickets regularly as we went looking for quick runs with the weather forecast looking grim. The umpires called play off early on day four due to bad light. I was out in the middle with the skipper when they did and he was unimpressed to say the least. We were fine to continue on, but the umpires had asked Alastair Cook if he wanted to bring on his spinners because a few of their fielders were complaining it was difficult to pick up the ball. Of course, he said he’d rather not and the umpires took us off. It robbed us of valuable overs at the English batsmen in the evening session.

Dave Warner had been welcomed back into the team for that Test and he top-scored in the second innings with 41 before he was caught in the deep by none other than Joe Root. At least Davey could see the funny side of the whole affair by then—‘Hooked another one at Rooty’, he said with a wry grin when he did media at the end of that day. He’s a top bloke, Davey, and I was impressed with the way he fought back after being sent off to South Africa. He was the villain as far as English fans were concerned for the rest of the summer. A trumpeter played the ‘Rocky’ movie theme when he went out to bat, which was actually pretty funny, and he got booed relentlessly, but he seemed to take it all in his stride.

Michael declared overnight with a 332-run lead, but the weather took a turn for the worse on the last day.

We started late due to persistent rain, but when we did get at them we got off to just the start we were after. The wicket was doing a bit and I managed to get one to come back in on Cook. We were ecstatic when Tony Hill gave him out, but had to wait for a DRS call, which came back in our favour anyway. I was really confident we could bowl them out and I felt like I was bowling as well as I had for a while.

I was sure I had Trott out LBW a few overs later, but umpire Hill wasn’t interested in our appeals. Pup sent it to review and even though it showed the ball clipping the stumps it stayed with the umpire’s call on the ground—much to my frustration! Trott edged one to Hadds soon after that, so there was some satisfaction there, but the inconsistency of the DRS was an issue throughout the series.

When Sidds dismissed Kevin Pietersen caught behind we were looking good at 3–27. That’s when it started to go pear-shaped. We only got 3 more overs at them before lunch and a shower delayed the resumption of play by about twenty minutes. Sidds bowled 3 balls to Ian Bell and then the heavens opened. I hate rain delays, but I’ve never felt angrier at the weather than I was that day. What should have been a fighting win to claw back to 2–1 in the series ended in England retaining the Ashes when the umpires abandoned play and the match ended in a draw.

It was a quick turnaround between the third and fourth Tests, so we had to shake off our disappointment quickly. The Ashes might have been gone, but we were determined to win one or both of the remaining Tests and take some momentum into the Australian Ashes series, which would get underway less than three months after the fifth Test at The Oval finished.

There was a bit of history about the fourth Test because it was to be played at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, which is Durham’s home ground, and it would be the first time an Ashes Test had been played there. The Riverside is only a small ground, but it has a nice country feel to it. It’s up in the north-east of England, just south of Newcastle. I’d never been up that far before, so it was good to have a look around. Not that we got too much time for sightseeing.

The wicket was pretty flat and dry—nearly all of them were that summer—but Nathan Lyon managed to coax a bit out of it and bagged 4 wickets. England was all out for 238 early on the second day after winning the toss and having a bat. Chris Rogers made an excellent ton in our first dig, but apart from Watto, who made 68, no-one really stayed with him as we put up a total of 270.

Everyone was really chuffed to see Chris hit his maiden Test century. He’d batted well without luck most of the series and it was a fitting reward for his persistence.

I’ve spoken before about feeling ‘in the zone’ and they were certainly coming out nicely in the England second innings. I wish I could replicate the ball that clipped Joe Root’s off-stump whenever I wanted to, but they’re all too rare. It was just full enough to bring him forward, but then it went away from him and sent the bails flying.

I was really happy with my pace and control and managed to snare Cook and Trott, but Bell and KP came together and put on a good partnership for England. They advanced the score to 155 after we’d had them 3–49, before Lyon removed KP on 44.

They were 5–234 going into the fourth day, but their tail wagged a little more than we would’ve liked. The wickets kept coming for me, but they’d made it to 330, leaving us a target of 299 runs before we bowled them out. I finished with career-best figures of 7–117, but I don’t get much satisfaction from those figures given the way the match ended. I would have gladly gone without a wicket if we could’ve chased down those runs. It wasn’t to be.

Once again, we were left frustrated after we worked our way into a strong position only to fail to push home our advantage. Chris Rogers and Dave Warner put on a 109-run partnership to open our run chase, but Stuart Broad bowled a superb spell to finish with 6–50. We collapsed to be all out for 224 with England winning by 74 runs and taking a 3–0 series lead.

‘Gutted’ doesn’t come close to describing how we felt. Boof wasn’t happy with how we batted and fair enough too, but he was right onto us about getting back up for the fifth Test. We had a team dinner, as we do after every Test, and I received the gold blazer, which was something Boof had brought in to acknowledge the team’s best player of the match. They get it embroidered with your name, your figures and the Test match details and you wear it that night until you have to give it back for the next Test. It was a good bit of fun and a nice way to acknowledge good performances from the boys, but I didn’t feel much like wearing it that night. The team was so close on that tour and we enjoyed spending time together, but everyone was hurting a bit that night.

Most of the team travelled to Northampton to play an England Lions side over three days in the gap between the fourth and fifth Tests, but I went back down to London with Brad Haddin and Peter Siddle. We were all a bit sore and needed the rest. My knee was playing up a bit, but there was no way I was going to miss the last Test.

James Faulkner was brought in to make his debut and it was great to see him get some reward for effort. Shane Warne presented him with his baggy green on the ground, which is always a special moment.

The Oval is another one of England’s most historic grounds and it was good to be finishing the series there. We were pumped to finish strong and Shane Watson and Steve Smith certainly batted that way after the skipper won the toss. Watto made a brilliant 176, while Steve batted well with 138 not out.

Pup declared at 9–492 with about 20 overs left on the second day after it had rained for most of the first half of the day. It was a good wicket to bat on and most of the England batsmen got a start, but none went on to make a hundred as we bowled them out for 377. But that didn’t happen until the fifth day! We lost the entire fourth day of play due to persistent rain, which was frustrating to say the least. James Faulkner was the best of our bowlers, taking 4 wickets, which was great to see from a young fella in his first Test.

The skipper was intent on getting a result—we all were—despite the limited time available. After a spirited session with the bat we set them a target of 227 to get from 44 overs after tea.

I opened the bowling with Starcy and managed to get Joe Root caught behind. It was Brad Haddin’s twenty-ninth catch of the series, which broke Rod Marsh’s record that had stood for thirty years. We celebrate each other’s achievements in the Australian team and we were all thrilled for Hadds, who was a rock for us behind the stumps the whole series.

Still, England looked to be gaining the upper hand with Cook and Trott advancing their score to 86 before Faulkner trapped Cook in front. We just couldn’t spark the batting collapse we needed, though. They were 3–163 when Davey Warner took a good outfield catch off my bowling to dismiss Pietersen, but that would be my last over of the series.

I’d been receiving some treatment for a sore hamstring and, as much as I hated to, I had to go off to get Alex to work on it some more with 9 overs remaining in the game. The floodlights were on and it was very dark by then. We managed another 2 wickets—Ian Bell’s run-out was our first of the series—with Bell’s dismissal coming from the last ball before the umpires abandoned play due to poor light. England still needed 21 runs from 4 overs to win.

Michael Clarke had done his best to set up a result, but we were booed by the England crowd as the players walked off, which I thought was a bit rich.

We went and shook hands with the England boys and looked on as the presentations were made, which was pretty gut-wrenching to be honest. We’d fought hard and I felt we deserved better than a 3–0 result, but there’s no denying England was the better team across the series. We let ourselves down with a bad session here and there and good teams will make you pay for that—which England did.

The mood was subdued in our rooms before we went over to the England rooms to have a beer with them. It had been a hard-fought series, which did get a little edgy at times. But you’d expect nothing less when two teams are hell-bent on winning the same prize.

We stayed and had a drink with them for an hour or so, then we were off back to our hotel. We had our customary dinner and a few drinks and it was good to be able to let go of a bit of the pressure that had been building. There was plenty of disappointment, but also some relief and, actually, a fair bit of optimism as well.

No-one gave us a chance when we went over there, but we did ourselves proud with some of our efforts. With a bit of luck the result could have been different and we were already looking towards the return series in Australia.