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."

Clarke said that while England's tactical approach may become more flair-minded, he would remain sturdy in his expectations of a team that would fight to the last in the Tests and stretch the patience of Australia's players, whether with the bat or in the field. It felt an optimistic prediction.

"How they play will not be a surprise to me," Clarke said. "I'm expecting them to be extremely tough to beat, they've got a very good bowling attack, they've got some experience with their batting and some batters in form. They might come hard at us. Whatever they throw up we'll be prepared.

"We've got some really good time now to make sure we're 100% prepared before we walk out onto that field in that first Test match. That'll be our number one focus, over the last couple of years preparation has been the most important part of our game, and this'll be no different. We'll be really excited by the time that first Test comes around.

"Credit to the boys, I was really honest with the boys and made it very clear I didn't want it spoken about at all throughout this series and I'm extremely thankful and proud that none of the guys have spoken about it. I'd be lying to say it hasn't been in the back of everyone's mind, but the fact we've been really disciplined on playing really good cricket in these conditions against this West Indies team is a really good achievement from the boys, but we're all excited about what lies ahead."

Lehmann's observations on the West Indies series included a most pointed critique of David Warner, who placed himself outside the team bubble with a pre-match admission he was working to change his persona both around the team and on the field. Save for a half-century in the second innings at Sabina Park, Lehmann had little positive to say.

"I think he's struggled this tour," Lehmann said. "He batted well in the second innings here. It would be nice for him to get some big runs. At the end of the day, he's about making runs, and that's what we need from him."