England challenged to take Australia on
Freed up to speak about the Ashes after doing their best to concentrate on a lopsided series against the West Indies, Darren Lehmann and Michael Clarke have offered a simple message to a newly aggressive and creative England team: bring it on.Two years ago Lehmann was was particularly outspoken in criticising the stodgy ways of Andy Flower and Alastair Cook, referring to England's style as "dour" and "not how I'd like us to play". Those strident words encouraged Australia's players to reclaim the assertive, Australian way, but now that the New South Welshman Trevor Bayliss is set to take over as coach, Lehmann and Clarke expect fireworks.
"They'll probably play a bit like we play I think," Lehmann said following a 2-0 demolition of the West Indies. "That's what they're trying to do, so it's going to be on for young and old. It's going to be entertaining for everyone and it's going to be an exciting series. They're going to be tough over there as we know and if they're going to play that way it's going to be the team that handles that pressure the best.
"From our point of view this is a great lead-in to that tour and now it's about getting prepared for the Ashes. They've got some things they're trying to work on and Trevor Bayliss will have them getting the way they want to play and he has got to do that pretty quickly."
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