Frank Gregan looks at the different approaches England and Australia take in the lead-up to the start of the Ashes. Off the training ground that is.

England and Australia share a common tongue but use it in two very different ways. The English are typically reserved, gracious and tolerant whilst the Australians are loud, obnoxious and in your face! Thirty per cent of Australians bait the English. Add alcohol and that figure rises to sixty per cent and throw in a discussion about cricket or rugby and you are in the high nineties! They are never slow to put the English down at any opportunity and they are certainly trying their very best to intimidate Ravi Bopara in the lead up to the Ashes.

Most pundits agree that a critical battle during the forthcoming series will be between Bopara and the rookie Australian batsman Phillip Hughes. Both are young and establishing themselves at Test level, both are considered outstanding prospects and during this series both have the chance to become national heroes. The winner of this individual battle could well determine the destination of the little urn.

The Australians realise this and have gone for Bopara's jugular. It is an Australian trait, pressure is not built by building expectations, pressure is built by casting aspirations and issuing a challenge. Shane Warne is the latest to follow Mitchell Johnson's lead and have a pop at Bopara, declaring that Bopara's three test tons on the trot are not the basis of pedigree.

Warne said last week: "Bopara is a good first-class cricketer, but he is not an international cricketer, I think he has got all the talent in the world, but I just don't think he's got the temperament." He can be put off his game too easily and he's too worried about how he looks." Meow! When Bopara read that his blood must have been boiling but that is exactly what Warne was trying to achieve, it's the Aussie way, wind them up and watch them crack!

When asked to comment on Warne's comments Bopara said "I've always wanted to bat in the top order for my country. To do it against the best in the world will be a great challenge," That's the English way, polite and courteous on the outside, fuming away on the inside!

Phillip Hughes comes into this series with ringing endorsements from some of Australia's finest. He has been compared to Steve Waugh by Justin Langer but probably the most significant comments have come from the former England fast bowler Angus Fraser, now the Director of Cricket at Middlesex which was where Hughes played earlier on in the season and had a great time scoring 574 runs at an average of 143.5! Fraser said, "It is an unfair comparison to make at this stage of his career but I feel he is a bit like Brian Lara." No pressure there than! Quality - that's the English way, respectful and complimentary but raising the expectation bar as high as it will go!

Only Ricky Ponting is shorter than Hughes in the top Aussie series bat market and the [5.0] that is available on the youngster is indicative of that expectation. Bopara has Strauss and Pietersen ahead of him in the English market but he is still too short at [5.5] to back. It looks as if Hughes could be the real deal and the recommendation is to back him at [5.0].

Regardless of how the pressure is applied it will be there in bucket fulls for these two young batsmen as they walk to the crease for their first Ashes knock. The Aussies have given Bopara a verbal battering and the English are happy to let the expectation level surrounding Hughes rise and rise. It promises to be a great battle - I can't wait!

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