sport news STUART BROAD: Aussies will probably think we can't play our way against them trends now

We are about to embark on what is going to be the most intriguing series between England and Australia since 2005.

Australia have got a great bowling attack and some of the best batters in the world; we are on the ultimate high as a team. We have outstanding belief.

Australia will probably think that we can't play the way we have done for the past 12 months against them.

But don’t forget that we have done it to some high quality bowlers in the recent past like New Zealand’s Trent Boult and Tim Southee; the Indian pair of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami; Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, of South Africa.

There is no doubt that if we get bowled out cheaply, we will just go even harder the next time. That has been a hallmark of this side.

Think back to last year, when we were on the ropes a few times, but kept coming back, refusing to be knocked down. Someone always got us out of trouble.

Remember Jamie Overton at Headingley? When we really needed him, he hit 97 in his only Test innings. We are a confident team with great belief, and when you take the draw out of your mind, only think about winning, imagine how far that can take you.

We have imagined and continue to imagine. At 36, in the twilight of my career, everything is about fun and enjoyment. I am thankful to England coach Brendon McCullum for creating the environment he has.

He has given me a sense of freedom in the sense that whatever I do in the next two to three years won’t affect what I have done in the previous 16 to 17.

So, whether I play one more Test or 25 more Tests, I'm good, I've enjoyed it and I've had some brilliant memories and some brilliant games.

There has been a lot of talk about Australians playing County Championship cricket to warm up ahead of the World Test Championship final and the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.

I'm certainly not in the camp of denying Steve Smith a chance to play here before facing England. The bloke has played enough to know what he's doing and ultimately I don't see that it's going to affect whether he scores runs against us or not.

But I've not really paid too much attention to how he and others have been getting on, as very rarely do you take your international plans from watching players do domestically.

As a bowler, you tend to come up with ways to get them out from their Test match dismissals because the pitches are very different.

One thing I did notice though was Ollie Robinson getting Marnus Labuschagne out with the first ball he bowled to him at Hove this week: he looked in great rhythm and it will be good for him psychologically. Although dismissing Glamorgan for 123 on that sort of surface is quite different to bowling at Australia at Lord’s or the Oval.

My view is that it's fantastic for the development of county players that you have Labuschagne, Cheteshwar Pujara, Smith, Robinson, Michael Neser all playing in the same Championship match.

From my perspective, I feel like four matches is a good amount of cricket to enable me to find the rhythm that I need heading into the international summer.

Every bowler’s requirements are different, but this week during Nottinghamshire’s fixture with Essex is the best I’ve felt and that bodes well, and a decent workload in April and May gives you something to fall back on during a schedule of six Tests in seven weeks.

Of course, I would like to play in the first of those v Ireland at Lord’s from June 1, but I have no expectations of what might happen, of how other guys within our 15-strong squad are feeling fitness wise, or what the selectors are thinking.

The biggest challenge for me has been making sure I stay in the present and look to deliver one game at a time instead of looking to the future, and that's hard when an Ashes series is dangling over you and you can get drawn into what you are looking to do across the whole season.

As a bowling attack, we need to look at things as a pack. You hear people talk about an armoury of fast bowlers, but we know that each of us will be needed at some stage and having that mentality that you can have as big an impact on an Ashes series in one Test as you can in five, if you are able to perform when called upon, means that I am not so much desperate to play this match or that.

I am actually just delighted to be in the mix, and when my chance comes, whether that is at Edgbaston at the start, or at the Oval at the end, I will do my utmost to deliver.

Yes, in previous series, I have set a target to be a key man in five Tests and that sort of thing, but that draws me into looking too far ahead, and if I get the nod at Edgbaston, I will give my heart and soul.

If I don't play, I will give my full

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