Captain Ricky Ponting declared himself delighted with the way Australia's one-day and Test teams were performing as he looked ahead to the three big challenges of the next 12 months.
Ponting on Sunday returned from Bangladesh where Australia swept both series against international cricket's youngest Test nation.
The prolific batsman described the tour as pretty satisfying, but physically demanding and a hard place to play cricket.
He said his players were looking forward to a break of around five months during which they could mentally refresh themselves and establish a good fitness level for their commitments later this year.
In a demanding six-month period, Australia will contest the Champions Trophy limited-overs tournament in India in October and November, the Ashes series between November and January and the World Cup in the West Indies next March and April.
Since returning from the unsuccessful Ashes campaign in England, Australia has won 11 and drawn one of 12 Tests and won 18 of 25 one-day internationals.
With Ponting expecting veteran paceman Glenn McGrath to return later in the year after missing Australia's recent commitments because of his wife's illness, Ponting felt his team was heading "in the right direction for the start of the Ashes campaign".
"With both forms of the game, I'm really happy with the way things are going," Ponting said at Sydney Airport.
"We've got Damien Martyn back in the Test side again now, we've got that really steady looking batting line-up which I think will be very good against the English out here in our conditions.
"We believe that everything is sort of on course with Glenn (McGrath) at the moment and he's obviously very keen to play in the Ashes series.
"Stuart Clark is coming along beautifully, Brett (Lee) has had an amazing 12 or 18 months and Warney (Shane Warne) is bowling as well as ever, so our whole set-up is shaping up pretty well."
Ponting thought McGrath would be better off missing the Champions Trophy tournament and suggested the veteran might be better served by getting some work in county cricket before the Australian summer.
He said the Australians would potentially have a better preparation for the Ashes series than England, which will cram seven Tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan into their schedule before heading down under.
"Our preparation, if we do it well and do it properly, I think we should be as well prepared as we possibly can be for the first Test match in Brisbane," Ponting said.
"There's probably going to be opportunities for some players to get maybe three or four rounds of Pura Cup cricket under their belts before the first Test.
"Where we came undone through South Africa and Bangladesh was just by having two-day breaks, one of which is obviously a travel day and then you've got a training day and you're back into the rigours of a Test match.
"That happened with almost five consecutive Test matches."
Ponting expected next summer's Ashes showdown with England to generate similar levels of excitement and exposure for the game as the memorable series in England last year.