England warm-up 'not really competition'

Jason Gillespie has kicked off Australia's pre-Ashes training by saying England's two Tests against Bangladesh are good only for their statistics. Gillespie, who arrived early for the camp in Brisbane with Shaun Tait yesterday, said England's innings victory at Lord's wouldn't hurt the bowlers' confidence.

"But they know that it's not really competition compared to what we're going to give them," he told the Courier-Mail. "As a player, you don't take a lot from those games except for good stats. You can look at it from the point of view that time in the middle is good for batters against any opposition."

Gillespie has been training hard in Adelaide, but said being involved in the camp made him realise how close the tour was. "We've had a good break since New Zealand," he told the paper. "Towards the end of that tour, I was thinking 'let's knock these guys over and get out of here'. It was purely a mental thing and it was one of the more challenging tours I had been on. But I feel great physically."

Australia leave for the two one-day series and the five Tests on Saturday. The first match of the tour is against Leicestershire at Grace Road on June 11.