Team ready for the hostilities as Ashes light up

Tim Paine knows the infamous Edgbaston crowd will give the returned players a hostile reception.

England captain Joe Root, left, and Australia's captain Tim Paine pose with the Ashes urn. Picture: AP

Tim Paine will toss the coin with England’s Joe Root at Edgbaston tonight in the first Test of the Ashes.

The call could be critical as low clouds are expected to make batting as hard for the tourists as it ­always has been. They have not won a game here since 2001; Eng­land have not lost any of their past 11 in any format at the ground.

It is, however, what is on the team sheet that Paine will hand to match referee Ranjan Madugalle that will be of most interest.

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David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, the Cape Town trio, have emerged from their ban and are expected to form the backbone of the batting and the order of the slips.

Paine, whose column in The Australian laid out the systems of a team attempting to reconstruct its values — and revealed the radical decision to leave their “ego at the door” and abandon playing “the Australian way” in an attempt to win the first series since 2001 — knows the infamous Edgbaston crowd will give the returned three and the team a hostile reception.

“We know what to expect here in England and we’re looking to embrace it,” the captain said. “We think it’s part of international cricket in England and it’s something we embrace … you can have great memories.

“We’re talking about it that way, trying to use it as energy … in a positive manner. We know what’s coming, it’s part and parcel. We need to be strong enough to handle it. We’ve spoken about that, backing each other up and being a really tight group, which is no different to anywhere else but here it can be more important on long tours.”

Coach Justin Langer admits they are unsure how Bancroft will handle his return, but is sure the batsman, like Smith and Warner, has done more than enough to earn his place back in the team.

“There’s nothing we can do about that. It’s 100 per cent out of our control and their control, and that’s OK,” he said. “We’ve been to lots of Ashes series and they’re all the same. England are the same when they come to Australia. It’s tough. That’s just the environment we’re in. You go to Cape Town or Johannesburg, it’s like being in the Gladiator movie.”