As with opening partner Matthew Hayden, it is difficult to look back now and understand how Langer was ever anything but indispensable to the Australian cause.

Successive failures upon his arrival in Test cricket cost Langer a place on the 1993 Ashes tour at the age of just 22 and he took five years to return to the starting line-up, taking the daunting mantle of David Boon's number three role.

He has been an almost permanent fixture ever since, forming a close partnership with Hayden which has helped shape the modern game.

While he is dwarfed in stature and power by the Queenslander, Langer himself is capable of scoring at the breakneck speed demanded by Ricky Ponting's side and it is a tribute to the left-hander that he has adapted his game to the changing rigours of the opener's role.

A combative batsman in both character and style, he has now developed into a stylish strokemaker adept against all types of bowling.

He and Hayden have shared a world record six double-century stands, inviting comparison with any of history's most famous opening pairs.

And while Hayden has slipped from the highest standards in recent months, Langer is in fine form and will expect to play a prominent role in England for the first time.

He will be relishing the challenge after getting a taste for Pommie flesh with 250 at Melbourne in the last Ashes series, and feeling fresher than most as he is not really considered for the ODI side.

He has only had one Test innings on these shores, 102* at The Oval in 2001, but he enjoyed a fruitful spell with Middlesex which famously prompted Andrew Strauss to label Langer "without doubt, the most disciplined cricketer I have ever seen."

No stranger to success or English conditions, the diminutive batsman looks primed to add his 21 Test centuries this summer.