Bopara to utilise Edgbaston encounter

Ravi Bopara spoke to ECBtv ahead of England's match with Warwickshire at Edgbaston - watch the full video above

England batsman Ravi Bopara is thankful for the preparation afforded by a three-day match with Warwickshire, but maintains there is no better yardstick than facing Australia in a Test match.

The 24-year-old England number three is sure to feature in the warm-up at Edgbaston this week, his side’s final match before the first npower Ashes Test at Cardiff, which begins on July 8.

“You can test out preparations for the series,” Bopara told ECBtv. “If you do well you take confidence into the (first Test).

“I don’t think we’ve played a long game recently. We played the one-dayers against West Indies and then went straight into the World Twenty20, so it should be helpful for us.”

The Essex batsman prefers to focus on match situations, and has put his own work in to combat Australia’s pace attack, having made twin tons against West Indies in the summer’s earlier two-Test series.

“I just think about walking out when a wicket falls and what Ravi can do. The confidence and self-belief are definitely up there.

Ravi Bopara, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook lay wreathes at the Menin Gate in memory of fallen British servicemen

“But it’s a new team, a new set of bowlers. I’ve got to start again.

“You have a little bit of a look at certain angles when facing a machine. But there’s no better way than to go out, tak your guard and face them in the middle.”

Prior to England’s cricketing preparations, the Test squad travelled to Belgium to pay tribute to the servicemen that lost their lives in the First World War.

For Bopara, the trip to Ypres and Flanders Field helped put the small matter of a cricket match in its proper perspective.

“It was good. I really enjoyed the First World War experience and the brutal facts. To see the trenches - gee, some of the stuff they went through was tough.”