The Australians began their first practice session in England today in readiness for the NatWest and Ashes series – and believe that they hold the psychological edge over England.

Skipper Steve Waugh acknowledges that England are on a roll at the moment, having won four Test series in a row, but thinks that his side will be able to take advantage of their recent good record against England.

Speaking at New Road, Worcester, this morning, Waugh said: "We are looking forward to playing England; they have done very well in recent times.

"They are a good side, seem together and are pretty tough and won some good matches.

"They are obviously a good team, but they are going to come up against a pretty good Australian side.

"We know what to expect. We got beaten pretty comprehensively in the First Test of the last series here but we have a pretty good record against England and their personnel have not changed that much.

"If we can get on top early we believe we can bring those old scars up."

His comments were echoed by fast bowler Glenn McGrath. "If we really concentrate on our game, I can't see us getting beaten," the New South Wales player told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"England have won four series in a row and are playing pretty well. Their spirits will be up."

But he added: "At the end of the day, I don't feel they really believe they can beat us. That's where we'll beat them."

Last week Waugh said that because of England's recent form and Australia's defeat in India, England went into the series as favourites. But he later claimed the comments were intended to be taken light-heartedly and repeated today that he felt the tourists were the likely favourites.

"England have just beaten Pakistan in the first Test of the summer and we lost our last two Test matches," said Waugh. "So form-wise England have got the form on the board - but I would suggest we will still probably go in as favourites.

"In some ways it would be good to see whether we can come back from losing a series. We will see how good we really are."

A number of the tourists have played county cricket and Waugh suggested that an Ashes tour was like a home-from-home for his travelling party.

"It's a great place to come and play cricket and it's the number one tour if you are an Australian player.

"We feel comfortable and a lot of us have played a lot of cricket here and we love playing in England.

"I think the crowds are probably the best to play in front of - cricket here has just got a good feeling about it. It feels as if this is the place to play."

Australia's first game of the tour will be a three-day game at New Road against Worcestershire starting on June 1.

© CricInfo Ltd.