STUART BROAD: It's always a good thing to have Pope in your corner.

STUART BROAD: It’s always a good thing to have Ollie Pope in your corner and confidence is high in England squad… and promising Josh Tongue has the pack mentality for Ashes

• The batters looked pretty fearsome against Ireland at Lord’s this week 
• Josh Tongue looked really dangerous and was rewarded with five wickets  
• Confidence is high within the group ahead of this summer’s Ashes 

At the age of 36, I may be even more excited about the prospect of playing in this summer’s Ashes than when I first faced Australia.

Your first Ashes series comes with an inevitable bag of nerves, but there will be no anxiety leading into this one for me. I couldn’t be more relaxed, to be honest.

That doesn’t mean I am not fully switched on or hugely competitive, it just means that I am very comfortable with what I’m doing right now.

I’ve experienced everything in the game and have a confidence in my ability which means that if I don’t deliver on one day, I will the next.

I want to have an impact on the series, absolutely, but it doesn’t matter if it’s the first, third or fifth Test match.

Ollie Pope scored a double hundred as England beat Ireland by 10 wickets at Lord’s

Stuart Broad was pleased with his five-wicket haul as England warmed-up for the Ashes

I have a history of pretty good performances later in Ashes series and I have a real trust in what the hierarchy are doing, so I will play whenever needed, confident I will do the job required.

During this week’s Test match against Ireland, I was sat next to Ollie Pope in the changing room, we claimed a corner and we said before the start: ‘Come on then, corner, let’s have a great week.’

It was a pretty good one for both of us, with my five wickets and his 205 in the first innings. I asked him how many double hundreds he’d scored in his career and when he reeled them off, I was bored by the end!

It’s always nice to hit the ground running at the start of an international summer, particularly with what’s on the horizon.

Confidence is high within the group, it feels like the most talked about Ashes series since 2005 and it feels good when you’ve contributed to the team being successful.

I am not someone who chases five-fors, as there is no real difference between five and four, and my main aim, particularly in an inexperienced bowling attack, is to lead by setting the tone.

My first ball went where I wanted it to — always a good sign — but I soon realised that seam up would be better than bowling wobble seam and I actually took most of my wickets with swing. That adaptability told me that my game awareness is where it needs to be ahead of taking on the Australians. 

On any pitch, I want to make life hard for the batsman. One of the strengths of the bowling group with England over the past 12 months has been to strike when conditions suit and that’s down to sharing information as quickly as possible out in the middle.

Opener Ben Duckett impressed as England scored 524-4 in just 82.4 overs at Lord’s

We take turns to step up

The batters looked pretty fearsome out there as well at Lord’s this week. I’ve played with Ben Duckett at Nottinghamshire for a good amount of time and his ability to hit good balls for four is something special. Pope is just class.

We approached the Ireland match with 90 per cent focus on us rather than the opposition. That’s been our mantra over the past year and there is a real belief in what we are doing.

An example of this, and probably the strongest I could give, came at Wellington a couple of Tests ago when on a green, green pitch, we were three wickets down early. But I knew we were going to put runs on the board, and Joe Root and Harry Brook scored big hundreds.

The calmness in the changing room comes from the anticipation that someone, or more accurately two people, will deliver on each day.

It is the same ethos the 50-over team had from 2015-19, winning that World Cup. They were not really bothered about people being consistent daily, but having great days when required.

Promising Tongue has pack mentality

As the senior bowler, I had a few conversations with Josh Tongue in his debut match. I’m a big believer in sticking to your strengths when starting a spell and I told him to bowl exactly how he would for Worcestershire.

A bit later, I told him that on this particular pitch, I believed traditional seam up — with the ball kissing the surface and moving sideways in the air — was the way to go. It was Josh’s first-ever game at Lord’s and it is a really unique place to bowl because of the famous slope.

From the pavilion end, you can get dragged back into the stumps and it’s very difficult to hold your line outside off-stump to run the ball back in.

Bowling from the nursery end, you have to really fire the ball in at middle stump for it to carry through towards the keeper.

But he settled in really well, didn’t bowl any balls that softly went down the leg side — which is so easy to do — and he showed great temperament and character.

Josh Tongue looked really dangerous and was rewarded with five wickets on the second day

You can get over-emotional and overawed by international cricket, but he hit the pitch really hard from his first over, looked really dangerous throughout and got the rewards on the second day for his efforts in the first innings.

You always need one X factor as a Test bowler, whether that’s height, pace, extreme accuracy or movement and he’s got a couple of those things, so he’s another promising addition to our armoury of bowlers.

In some bowling units, it’s all about who takes the wickets but there is a genuine pack mentality amongst us, we are all in it together and ultimately we need 100 Australian wickets in the five Tests ahead.

With such a tight schedule, they are not going to be taken by just four bowlers.

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