Marcus Trescothick: Take the chance to become an Ashes hero

The opportunity is there for an England player to become a national hero over the next five days at The Oval.

That's one of the things I would be saying if I were Andrew Strauss delivering the final team talk ahead of the fifth and decisive Ashes Test.

Several of the England team are survivors from the corresponding match in the 2005 series and, like myself, will have vivid memories of five of the toughest days cricket imaginable.

Like Australia now, we only needed a draw to lay claim to the Ashes and it was Kevin Pietersen who emerged as the hero with a fantastic knock of 158 in our second innings.

I have only blurred recollections of the three days of celebration that followed the umpires removing the bails with the teams off the field for bad light.

We had been told five minutes earlier that the game was over and we had secured the draw. We had to keep the dressing room door closed while we whooped it up so that the crowd didn't get wind of it before it became official.

I think there are players in the current England team capable of doing a KP and rising to the occasion when their country needs them most.

In my experience, we are at our best with backs against the wall and there has been plenty of stick flying around in the media since Australia levelled the series at Headingley.

We are staring down the barrel going into the game, but I think there is even more pressure on the Aussies, who are now expected to retain the precious urn.

That pressure can make what appear straightforward tasks very difficult. In 2005 we won the toss, elected to bat and knew that a big total on a good pitch would effectively seal the outcome of the series. But after a decent start we lost a cluster of wickets and it took an Andrew Strauss century and 72 from Freddie Flintoff to get us up to 373.

From then on it was always going to be hard work, but in the end we drew the match pretty comfortably and the sense of achievement was unbelievable.

If I was giving that team talk it would be mostly about the sense of occasion and the importance of victory to the cricketing public in this country, who rate the Ashes ahead of even a World Cup.

Opportunities to play in such a match don't come around very often and it will be all about which team responds best to the special situation.

The tension will be unbelievable. Players like Ricky Ponting and Simon Katich will remember what it was like to lose the Ashes in England four years ago and will be desperate to avoid a repeat of that experience.

It's going to be riveting viewing and I just hope the weather holds so we get a full game. If we do, I give England a very good chance and stick to my prediction that we will win the series.

I was lucky enough to experience a packed crowd and fantastic atmosphere at Edgbaston last Saturday when Somerset finished runners-up to Sussex in the Twenty20 Cup.

It was a great day, despite that disappointment. I woke up at 6.30am wide-eyed and eager to get going. We played well against Kent in the semi-final, but were beaten by a better side on the day in the final.

Sussex spinners Will Beer and Michael Yardy managed to tie us down in mid-innings and we lost to a very talented all-round one-day side.

The consolation prize was qualification for the Champions League in India in October and, as I said in last week's column, I will be doing my utmost to be there, despite the problems I have experienced about playing cricket abroad as a result of my stress-related illness.

I have been named in Somerset's provisional squad of 20 and have until the first week in September, when that party will be reduced to a final 15, to make up my mind.

Discussions are ongoing about how I could make the trip and I certainly don't want to miss the chance to cross swords with the best Twenty20 players in the world.

It was great to gain quick revenge on Sussex with our Pro40 League victory over them under the Taunton floodlights on Monday evening.

Even though we took a grip on the game, they battled to the last with Ed Joyce hitting 94 not out and showed what a class outfit they are.

The victory took us above the Sharks to the top of the table so, with four games left, the title is ours to lose.

Having said that, there is an awful lot of cricket to be played and we have to keep working at the skills, which have seen us improve so much as a limited overs team in the past couple of years.