“We should go into the series with some good confidence”
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England pace bowler Stuart Broad believes that the national team are favourites to win the upcoming Ashes series due to a number of reasons.
Firstly, Australia have not won an Ashes series in England since 2001. Secondly, England have been in red-hot form as of late as they stunned New Zealand 3-2 in their recently concluded ODI series and finally, England will be able to pick the brains of newly appointed head coach Trevor Bayliss as he has worked with the Baggy Greens in the past.
“There’s a lot of experience in our changing room, a lot of us have played against the Australians quite a lot and we should go into the series with some good confidence,” Broad told Sky Sports. “Australia haven’t won a series in England since 2001, England play some fantastic cricket in England, but it’s also worth picking the brain of a lot of people and having an Australian coach for the first time we’ll certainly be picking his brain to get any sort of advantage.
“And there’s a lot of momentum – just the way the guys played (against New Zealand), really free-spirited, really exciting to watch. You can’t play that aggressively, that positively, in Test cricket, but you can certainly take that momentum into it, you can look to score.
“I think it showed when you have no fear with the bat it was hugely exciting to watch and you get a bit luckier as well.”
Broad also feels that England have an extremely strong team and pointed out that skipper Alastair Cook, batsman Joe Root, wicketkeeper Jos Buttler and all-rounder Ben Stokes have all been in superb form as of late.
“I think it’s opened the fans eyes to the amount of talent in English cricket at the moment – the summer that the likes of Root, Buttler and Stokes have been having is fantastic so far, and then you bring in the experience of Jimmy Anderson and Alastair Cook and it suddenly matches up to be a very strong team.”
Meanwhile, Broad also made it clear that he has no intentions to sledge the Australians during the Ashes. However, he admitted that emotions will get the better of both teams at numerous points throughout the series.
“It’s important against Australia you do look them in the eye and front up,” he said. “You don’t have to say anything. You just have to have that look in your eye and have a presence on the field.
“You do have to match the Aussies slightly, because they’re a tough team to play against and you don’t want to just sit back and take it.”