Ashes: England keen to set pace from first ball

“Australia have jumped out from ball one and grabbed the front running and they haven’t looked back from there,” the 31-year-old left-hander said.

“I think the Poms have got to do a fair bit to get to Brisbane and really make sure that in that first session they do grab the mantle a bit, whether it’s bat first when they probably would always bowl first, or whatever it is.

“They need to do something a bit different to try and break the trend,” added Elliott, who was speaking at the launch of Australia’s interstate season.

Elliott said he hoped the Ashes series would be tight because if Australia continued to dominate England it would hurt world cricket.

“Even when you play county cricket, their players talk a lot about Australian players and Australian cricket and they really do see us as the benchmark,” Elliott said.

“Once again I think a lot of things would have to go their way to do well in Australia this summer. I just hope for probably the Australian public and world cricket’s sake that it is a tight series.”

Elliott, who will captain Victoria in 2002-03 while regular skipper Shane Warne is playing for Australia, said England needed to look to fresh faces to carry the attack against Australia. (Reuters)