England's head coach Brendon McCullumhas admitted that the English players are confident as the Ashes looms around despite the recent 3-0 beating they endured against New Zealand. McCullum said that he expects no excuses from the team once the Ashes gets underway. He expressed confidence that the players will be able to put up a fight Down Under.

"I think when we do come across the trickier conditions in Australia and Test cricket, we have a pretty good understanding of how we're going to go about it.

It doesn't guarantee us anything but it gives us a level of confidence going into that series. They've (experienced players like Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith) marked centre a few times and gone through the process and I'm sure they'll be better for it. With the prep that we've had with the other Test guys who've been here for a while too, we'll have no excuses come Australia," McCullum was quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

McCullum also spoke on the challenges the team will encounter in Australia. However, he reiterated how excited he was for the team to get there and commence the proceedings positively. 

"I'm proper excited. We're incredibly respectful of the challenge Australia is going to present us and we know how hard that tour is going to be. It's going to require a team to stay together right throughout, to be as strong as we can to try and block out any of the outside noise. But we're very respectful of who we're coming up against, we're so excited to get over there and we can't wait to get started," he added.

England will enter the Ashes on the back of an ODI series whitewash against the Kiwis. Most of the batters looked fragile and out of form. The Three Lions could only muster 223, 175 and 222 in the three ODIs. Although in a completely different format, they will be aiming on putting in much better performances against Australia.