Flower not taking Australia lightly

Andy Flower is confident it will be England lifting the famous urn this summer
30 June 2013

England team director Andy Flower hopes his side will not be complacent in an Ashes series he describes as "a different challenge" to the recent contests against Australia.

In contrast to the last two series, Alastair Cook's side are clear favourites to retain the Ashes against an Australian team that has been labelled as the worst in 30 years by experts Down Under. Flower is wary of resting on his laurels and is aware England have shown certain frailties in the Test arena, but is still confident it will be his side lifting the famous urn this summer.

The Zimbabwean told the Daily Mail: "The 2009 Ashes were probably won against expectation and winning away was again I'd say won against expectation because Australia had such an amazing record at home before we beat them there. Now we're expected to win and that does bring a different challenge."

He added: "Yes, we go into this series as favourites but anyone who knows about the game would also admit that we aren't as good as some people are saying and the Australians are not as poor as some people are saying.

"We know that they will be dangerous and we respect them as such. But we also know we are a very good Test side and have a group of players who are excellent fighters."

Flower also had soothing words for Nick Compton, who was overlooked for England's warm-up game against Essex, with national selector Geoff Miller indicating that Joe Root was "currently the best opening partner for Alastair Cook".

Despite scoring two centuries in New Zealand, Compton appeared ill at ease in the return series against the Black Caps which made his place vulnerable for the Ashes.

However, he sent a reminder to the selectors with a gutsy innings of 81 for Somerset against Australia at Taunton earlier this week, with Flower hoping he can continue to show his credentials.

"You never know what's round the corner. He must ensure he's in pole position should anything unfortunate occur to the men in possession. Runs against Australia for Somerset were the perfect start," Flower added.

"He's very hungry to succeed and I love seeing that hunger in a player."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in