Essex and England batsman Alastair Cook is excited and ready for the opening Ashes Test in Brisbane on Thursday.
England head into the series having played three warm-up matches in Perth, Adelaide and Townsville and Cook has had a timely return to form.
Cook started the tour with a second ball duck, but scored a fluent 70 in the draw against a Cricket Australia XI in Townsville, and feels he is hitting form at the right time.
The 32-year-old said: “It was an important innings in Townsville. Obviously, the tour hadn’t started off exactly as I would have liked but it was nice to get some runs under the belt and find a bit of fluidity.
“In an ideal world you will spend lots of time in the middle, but if you score a lot of runs in warm up games that doesn’t always translate to matches.
“I feel my movements and rhythm are good, so I am in a good place going into the First Test and excited for what is ahead.”
The left-hander believes although England’s preparation has gone under the radar, the team will be ready for Australia on Thursday at the Gabba.
He added: “The guys are ready. It has been quite a low key build up for us but we are looking forward to getting going on Thursday. We have spent a lot of time talking and there has been a lot of hard work but we will be ready for the challenge Australia throw at us.
“I am still enjoying the challenge of playing for England. It doesn’t get any easier once you have played 140 games because you are playing against the best players in the world but we are all excited for the series and can’t wait to get going on Thursday now.”
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