Strauss not thinking about Ashes
England cricket captain Andrew Strauss says he and his side are not thinking about the Ashes and must focus on beating Pakistan.
There is a lot of focus on England's tour to Australia this summer because of the fact that England are the favourites to win the next Ashes series down under for the first time in nearly two decades.
However, Strauss says it would be very naive for the team to look beyond the series they have with Pakistan due to the fact that Pakistan have all of the players and quality needed to beat them.
There is a lot of sense in what Strauss says because there are many qualities in the Pakistan side that England have to deal with. However, part of the set-up will be thinking about the Ashes because it is a huge series for England.
Pakistan Quality
Pakistan have just shown in their last Two test matches that they are more than capable of beating the best sides in the world. They completely took apart Australia during the second test match meaning, they could do the same to England.
Pakistan's bowlers look to be on top form at the moment and England must be patient and deal with them efficiently over the course of the four test matches the two countries are about to play.
Pakistan have a lot of support in England and they will be full of confidence and up for the challenge. This means that if England take their eye off http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 for a second then they will be made to pay for it.
Strauss said: "We saw against Australia that the Pakistan side is dangerous one full of talent. They are used to conditions so was don't have that to surprise them. We are going to have to be at our best to win it and that's a good thing for us, not only ahead of the Ashes but generally because we want to play at our best and hopefully beat the best."
The Ashes
Some members of the England set-up will already have an eye on the Ashes this winter. This is because England will strongly fancy their chances of beating http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in Australia for the first time since the 1980s.
They will use this series as a chance to show off their dominance in many areas over the Aussie side. They have a much better chance of coping with the conditions in England that the Australians found very difficult because it is their own country.
He added: "In some ways it's a precursor because there's a lot of attention towards the Ashes and we can understand that. It's wrong to look at any series and look beyond it. All we can do is play well in the series, win the series and go from this series to Australia with a lot of confidence."
Betting advice
England will be the favourites to win the series against Pakistan and they should just about edge it. They have the better balanced side and although the Pakistani bowlers have been playing very well, England do have the tools needed to take apart the Pakistani batsmen.
If England do very well in this series then don't be afraid to throw a bet on them to win the Ashes at a canter this winter. They have the ability to do this and you stand a very good chance of getting amazing odds at this moment in time before they shorten when England start to win a lot of games.
If you like backing individuals then Strauss is looking up for the challenge and could well score a century at some point during the test series.
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