Australia search for strong start to tour

Australia have arrived in Ireland for the opening match of their tour of the British Isles, but they will have to shake off some rust ahead of the ODIs against England. They begin with a one-off one-day international against Ireland on Thursday and Cameron White conceded the Australians might be out of practice, having had a month off since the World Twenty20.

"There probably will be a little bit [of rustiness], no doubt against Ireland," White told AAP. "The important thing is by the time were down to Southampton we should be up and going and ready to go. The three or four weeks that everyone has had since the World Cup will be good and hopefully we can hit the ground running."

The five-match series against England begins at the Rose Bowl next Tuesday, before the Australians move on to two Twenty20s and two Tests against Pakistan. The Ireland game will be an especially useful warm-up for the six members of the squad who were not in the World Twenty20 group, including the captain Ricky Ponting.

The pitch in Dublin is likely to be slow and low, which could help Ireland become more competitive. The Ireland veteran Trent Johnston said his colleagues were aiming to give the visitors as tough an introduction as possible on their six-week tour.

"When we get out there and execute our plans the way we want to we can be a pretty dangerous team," Johnston said. "The last thing they'll want to do is play England after being beaten by Ireland.

"We're not going to kid ourselves, the 11 guys will have to play the games of their lives to be close to Australia. People didn't give us much chance of beating England last August and we should have beaten them, we lost by three runs; that was quite disappointing. We're going to get out there and give it a go, that's all we can do."