England captain Andrew Strauss says Australia have lost their previous aura and opposition teams are no longer in awe of them.
England captain Andrew Strauss says Australia have lost their previous aura and opposition teams are no longer in awe of them.
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England are 1-0 ahead in the series after the heroics of Andrew Flintoff at Lord's last week and are imbued with the belief that the Ashes can be regained this summer.
Strauss admitted that in previous series, even when England were in strong positions, the fear of Australia's experienced match-winners meant they never felt truly comfortable.
"I don't think this Australian side has an aura about it," Strauss was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph. "We didn't think so even before the series started.
"Not to be disrespectful, they still have some great players. The aura came from players like [Glenn] McGrath, [Shane] Warne, [Matthew] Hayden and [Adam] Gilchrist.
"A lot of the guys in this team are at the start of their Test careers and necessarily don't have an aura yet.
"[Playing Australia now] feels like playing any other Test team."
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