London, September 04: After having regained the coveted Ashes urn, England are ready for a closely contested seven-match ODI series against the revenge-hungry Aussies.
According to latest cricket updates, England captain Andrew Strauss, who had a great Ashes series both as a captain and as a batsman, expects that they would be up against some new challenges in the ODI series against Australia that starts on Friday at The Oval.
But he also said that the feel-good factor after the Ashes win would help them to beat their arch-rivals and improve their ODI rankings.
“There`s not a lot of time to dwell on the past in international cricket,” said Strauss. “There`s always a new challenge there, and now we`ve got an extended period of one-day cricket to immerse ourselves in, and use the feel-good factor from the Ashes to propel us to play better cricket. Coming back to the guys, there`s a great feeling in the camp, an excitement about what those guys who were involved have achieved, as well as for the guys coming in who`ve been watching it, and want to be involved in international cricket again.”
“It`s great to have a squad of players together for an extended period of time in one-day cricket,” he added. “We don`t have that luxury very often, and you can get some really good stuff done, both by performing consistently and from the work you can do behind the scenes. You can really make improvements in your fielding and gameplans to certain bowlers.”
He also admitted that the series will be an ideal preparation for the Champions Trophy. “This is a great way to prepare for the Champions Trophy but any series against Australia is an event in its own right,” he said.
“I suppose from our recent experiences in one-day cricket we are looking to improve our consistency. We have see-sawed from very good to very bad, and that`s something we need to address. But this has got all the makings of a tight series, with two sides at similar stages of their development. Hopefully we`ll grab it by the scruff of the neck and get on top of them early.”
–Agencies