Strauss warns of post-Arthur backlash
Andrew Strauss, the former England captain, believes that the sacking of Mickey Arthur could make Australia a more difficult proposition to beat during the Ashes
ESPNcricinfo staff
01-Jul-2013
Andrew Strauss, the former England captain, believes that the sacking of Mickey Arthur could make Australia a more difficult proposition to beat during the Ashes. Speaking to All Out Cricket, Strauss said the decision had come as a "huge surprise" but felt it could galvanise the Australia team to play for each other. However, if England maintain their focus and get off to a strong start, he is backing them to win the series.
I think it's really important that England don't listen too much to what has been going on with the Australian side and we always made a very conscious effort to concentrate on ourselves and not worry too much about the opposition whether they were really good or really bad, and this is no different really.
I think if England for one moment expect Australia to play poorly they're going to be in for a nasty surprise. They've got to expect Australia to come out all guns blazing. It's an Ashes series after all and they've got to tailor their preparations accordingly. They would have done a lot of work in preparation for this series; Andy Flower, Graham Gooch and David Saker will have been spending a lot of time thinking about how they want to play.
The challenge for England is to make sure they start the series well. That's obviously been an area that they've not been quite so good at recently and it's going to be crucial in this series. If England start well I can't see how Australia are going to come back at them.