Intro:

England players Ben Stokes and Steve Finn - along with former Australian bowler Jeff Thomson - look ahead to the start of the Ashes.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English), Ben Stokes:

"Broady has said about how big the Ashes is and I know that because I have been a part of one in Australia. Obviously we were on the receiving end of a few mad Aussies walking round the street, in the crowd and what not. But we are in England now and we've got the support of the whole nation for the next seven weeks coming up. The support that we got even in the one day series and Tests against New Zealand was absolutely amazing. Lord's on that last day was incredible. So you know we've got the backing of the nation this time."

SOUNDBITE: (English), Steven Finn:

"I think at the moment my place in the squad is as the back up seamer if we are being honest. But I am still preparing myself to play. If the wicket suits or there is an injury or something then I am most definitely preparing myself to play. But I am excited to be in the squad obviously - across a five match Test series to play the same bowling line up in every game, obviously if your bowlers are bowling well you'd want to play it the same but there is a lot of other things that come into play there. So if I am not playing in the first Test it is not the end of the world, there is a long way to go in the summer. I just have to make sure that if I do get the call or when I get the call to play that I am ready to take it."

SOUNDBITE: (English), Ben Stokes:

"I think so. Being positive is not just about hitting fours and sixes. There is other ways of going about it. It can be from your running between the crease, your intent and everything you do. It's going to be the same - we are still going to have the same approach. They might have a better bowling line up than New Zealand, they've got a bit more pace but we are still going to be going in with the same mentality of those two test matches against New Zealand."