Nasser Hussain fired the first serious salvo in the war of words ahead of this winter's Ashes series, warning his players they must be psychologically ready to beat Australia instead of settling for just competing with them. Hussain spoke as he prepared to fly to Australia a week ahead of the rest of the tour party – he is accompanying his pregnant wife Karen, who cannot fly after this week, rather than have to interrupt the tour for the birth of his second child.

"The old days of going out to compete are gone," he said. "We've got to get on with it and look at ways of beating them rather than telling everyone how good they are. There are field settings and tactics you can beat Australia with. It's up to me as captain and Duncan Fletcher as a coach to work that out as soon as possible.

"I've got to try to captain in a positive, aggressive sort of manner. Rather than go out and say you (Australia) are great, whatever you want is fine by us and we worship you lot. Everyone knows Australia are a great side. But I don't see why you should be intimidated by them.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't beat them this time. Sequences like our run of Ashes defeats are there to be broken. Off the field, things need to start going for us. But if everyone gets fit, key battles are won and we play well in the first session of every game, especially the first Test, we can beat them."

Hussain was keen to stress that touring Australia was far easier than traveling to the subcontinent – except for one small thing. " I've always found every aspect of the tour unintimidating - apart from their style of cricket. They play really tough but you get a great deal of enjoyment from doing well against them. I hope everyone is ready for it."

Hussain said that he was not bothered by England's poor results in Ashes series since 1989. "Things like that are there to be broken. When we went off to the subcontinent facts like that were thrown at our team and we turned that round."

The first Test at Brisbane starts on November 7.

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