England still have a couple of NatWest Series matches left but few could blame the players if their minds are already turning to the Ashes series.

England have been outclassed in the triangular one-day competition by Pakistan and Australia, losing all four of their games so far. This renders their two remaining games meaningless as it will be the tourists who will contest the final.

There is a worry that any psychological scars picked up during the NatWest Series could be carried over into the Tests but England paceman Darren Gough dispelled such concerns.

"It will be a totally different side that will turn up at Edgbaston for the First Test," he said. "We've got three days' preparation, you'll see a hard-working unit who will not be thinking about what happened in the one-day games.

"We are a side who have come off a good trot; we got outplayed at Old Trafford, we had a couple of spells which cost us the game, but we've played some great cricket over the last 18 months and we are confident we can put up a good show against them.

"As soon as I arrive at Edgbaston on the Monday before the Test. I won't have my blue kit any more - that's gone for another six months. They are favourites, but if we play like we did at Lord's, like we did in the winter, we can win it, and we all believe we can.

"I've got my theories about Australia; all you do is find out the strengths and try to keep away from them. They've got some great batsman - you have to be up for it, and don't get down.

"There will be days when you get none for a hundred, but there are days when you can really believe as a bowling partnership you can bowl them out. If we can do that in two Tests and win two, we've a chance of winning the series.

"There are two good bowling attacks; it's going to be the team that bats the best that wins the series. We've got some experienced players to come back in Hussain, Thorpe and White."

Looking beyond the Ashes series and towards 2003, the year of the next World Cup, Gough is optimistic about England's chances despite the current run of nine consecutive one-day defeats.

"The last two World Cups have been disasters," he said. "We won the games leading up to them, but as soon as we got to a World Cup, we didn't play very well. There are young players coming in now and when we bring back men who are important to us such as White, Hussain, Giles and Thorpe and we've a good side with experience and youth.

"It is disappointing when we keep losing, but these guys are getting caps under their belts and when we go into the next World Cup we need everyone in the squad to have played around 30 One-Day Internationals.

"Owais Shah has come in and showed skill, and the fielding in the last three games has been the best I've been part of. We've got something to work on. I wouldn't judge it until we get the team all playing together.

"This one-day series was always going to be hard with the injuries we've had. We've missed Hussain and Thorpe, he's our finisher, our Michael Bevan. All we need is experience in playing more games."

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