'What do you think?': Brook puts Lyon on notice

Nathan Lyon took nine wickets on his last trip to Edgbaston and is eyeing off a dry pitch at the same venue for the Ashes opener four years on, yet England's most aggressive Bazballer has vowed to "take down" Australia's star spinner.

The battle between veteran spinner Lyon, who is expected to go past 500 wickets over the coming weeks, and his counterpart Moeen Ali, chiselled out of retirement after Jack Leach was ruled out due to injury, looms as a vital sub-plot of this northern summer's five-Test series.

Both may be encouraged by a surface Steve Smith labelled "furry" but bereft of live grass and sporting a brown colour that may signal a dryness that will assist spinners.

But Harry Brook, arguably the most emblematic batter of England's belligerent approach to Test cricket under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, left reporters in little doubt as to his intentions for Lyon.

"What do you think?" replied Brooks to a question about how he will approach the off-spinner.

It is likely to come as little surprise to Lyon, who had practiced on Wednesday before the rest of the expected XI had arrived by getting reserves Josh Inglis and Matthew Renshaw to attempt to launch him out of the nets.

Brook averages 81.80 from his seven Tests and has Test cricket's highest strike-rate of all-time (minimum 750 runs), having scored his 818 runs from 11 innings at 99.03, including four centuries, all during the 'Bazball' regime.

The 24-year-old is in good company; every other member of England's top seven selected for Friday's first Test strikes at over 70 since Ben Stokes took over as captain and Brendon McCullum as coach last year.

Lyon typically performs dual roles between being Australia's main holding bowler as well as a strike weapon, with the coming weeks to test him in terms of dealing with the most unapologetically attacking team in Test history.

One of the 36-year-old's finest Ashes performances came in the opening match of the 2019 series in Birmingham when he took six second-innings wickets to seal a victory at England's fortress ground.

But Brook, who has along with his top-order teammates been practicing extensively against former New Zealand off-spinner (now England assistant coach) Jeetan Patel in the nets in recent days, put Lyon on notice on Wednesday.

"If he bowls a good ball then I'm going to respect it but other than that, I'm going to try to take him on," said the right-hander.

"He could take a lot of wickets but hopefully we're going to hit him for a lot of runs.

"I like to think I'm a player who can find gaps and hit different gaps really, and play all around the wicket. I'll see what field he has. I'm sure they'll start with everybody up and we'll go from there."

Brook's forthright attitude reflects how England want their players to approach the game and stands in contrast to Australia's more measured outlook.

While Moeen has admitted he expects to be targeted and Smith confirmed there would be times where they go after the allrounder who is desperately short of long-form match practice, Australia's leading batter's assessment of their approach was more measured.

Smith skied a catch off Ravindra Jadeja during last week's World Test Championship final, admitting it was "not my best shot", though pointed out it was in search of quick runs and had come after a glittering century in the first innings.

It was the kind of dismissal Stuart Broad declared earlier this year that he hoped to see from Smith in the Ashes against Leach, though the Australian said he would temper his aggression to Moeen.

"Leachy's not here, they don't have a left-arm spinner, so it's a bit different with the ball spinning in," said Smith, now part of a middle-order that is rated No.1, 2 and 3 on the ICC's Test batting rankings (Manus Labuschagne, Smith and Travis Head, in that order).

"There will be times where we put a bit more pressure on (Moeen), and times where we just have to absorb it. It's about playing the situation of the game at the time.

"When we get our opportunities to be a bit more aggressive we can do that, and some of the fields they set with players up might allow for us to be aggressive and get away with it at times." 

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Friday June 16-Tuesday June 20, Edgbaston

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood