England hatching plan to bring down Australia in their own backyard

Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes have opened up on England's plans to target the 'egos' of Australia's batsmen during this winter's Ashes

Joe Root and his men fly out to Australia this evening (Getty)

England will target Australia’s injury-prone pace attack and the “egos” of their batsmen in an attempt to turn their “fickle” home crowd against them, according to Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes.

Joe Root’s team fly out to Australia this evening with few observers backing them to defend the urn they won in 2015. But speaking just before the team’s departure, at a farewell lunch hosted by the Professional Cricketers’ Association, Bairstow and Woakes outlined a number of weak areas in the Australian side that they will seek to exploit.

Foremost among them is the fabled but fragile home pace attack, already missing James Pattinson due to a stress fracture of the lower back. In their absence, the fast-bowling burden will be shouldered by Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, all of whom have struggled with injuries of late. Woakes also pointed out that there are question marks over wicket-keeper Matthew Wade, who has made just one fifty in his last 19 Test innings, and is still not guaranteed a place for the first Test at Brisbane.

“If you actually analyse it player by player, there’s areas in which we will look to be exploiting their inexperience,” said Bairstow. “We know that if we can take their bowlers into spells three, four and five, day two, day three, [then] in the past they have had people who have broken down. That’s nothing out of the blue, that’s factual. We will be trying to make them bowl for long periods of time.”

“They’ve obviously got some pace,” added Woakes, who is going on his first Ashes tour. “But at the same time, apart from Hazlewood, they haven’t got a guy who can sit in and hold positions. Cummins has played five Test matches in his whole career. He’s never played a Test match in Australia. They’re putting pressure on one of their own before he’s even started his home career.

“And I don’t think they’ve got a huge amount of backup bowlers apart from those three. Guys who have got records of injury - if they break down during the series, what have they got coming through after that? They’re also missing a keeper-batsman at the minute, they’re short in that area, which is obviously quite a crucial position in every team.”

Bairstow played in the 5-0 whitewash of 2013-14 and experienced at first-hand the bloodlust of Australian crowds, a force England will look to turn inwards. “Within their batting line-up they’ve got people that like to go out and be positive,” he said. “We’ll play on egos, instincts, and try to test them in those situations.

Chris Woakes is making his first appearance at the Ashes this winter (Getty)

“At the same time, if they don’t start well, we know how fickle they can be, the Australian public. We know how quickly they can turn on their own. Very, very quickly. So if they don’t start well, and do everything they said they were going to do, it will be amazing to see how it changes.”

Root, for his part, believed Australia were underestimating their opponents. “I think so, slightly,” he said. “They are a good side, they are very confident. But so are we. Look around the dressing room. Look at what guys have done, not just this summer but previously.

“We’ve got England's two most successful bowlers, Stuart [Broad] and Jimmy [Anderson]. The leading run-scorer in Alastair [Cook]. We’ve got some guys who are desperate to come and stamp their mark on Test cricket who’ve not played before. And we’ve got a group of players in the middle there that are continually improving and getting better year on year, ready to go to Australia and try to prove to that part of the world that they are among the best players in the world.”

The England Test captain has worked in the past with the armed forces charity Help for Heroes, and brushed off the recent comments by his former sparring partner David Warner about the forthcoming series being “war”. “I would never refer to it as war,” he said. “I think that’s a bit extreme. You know what you get with David. What you see is what you get.”