FP – Stuart Broad expects local conditions will leave England better equipped to handle Mitchell Johnson’s express pace.
Johnson embarrassed Broad and his teammates in the 2013-14 Ashes, unleashing a barrage of bouncers to snare 37 wickets and steer Australia to a 5-0 win.
Broad fired a shot at the Australian camp last week when he declared Steve Smith’s promotion to first drop was advantageous for England.
The pantomime villain wasn’t quite as forthright on Thursday, noting Johnson had an “incredible series” when he averaged 13.97.
But Broad was confident there would be no repeat.
“Conditions are very different. In Australia, obviously you get more bounce,” Broad said.
“We have a lot of talent in this England batting line-up, we have a lot of guys who are experienced at scoring a lot of runs in England.
“So I would expect us to cope with Mitchell Johnson, certainly better than we did in Australia. We’ll have to.”
Kent and Essex have served up incredibly flat pitches in Canterbury and Chelmsford for Australia’s opening Ashes tour games.
The visitors are expecting more of the same throughout the five-Test series, which starts in Cardiff on Wednesday.
“Going on what happened last Test series over here, the wickets were pretty similar,” Peter Siddle said after a day of toil against Essex in Chelmsford.
“With English wickets, when they do flatten out they really flatten out.
“It is going to be hard work in some of the games.
“We’ve just got prepare like we normally do, expect the worst and hopefully we get something better.”
Johnson, speaking earlier this week, agreed.
“We played on a flat one at Canterbury, that’s what we expect I guess,” he said.
“We know the wickets over here are generally slower, but we saw (in Canterbury) if you bang it in there you can really get it through.”
Broad suggested Johnson’s dynamic four-over spells would shape the course of the series.
“Because he can make breakthroughs at key times. It will be important for us as a team to realise those important moments,” he said.
