England will give Australia hell of a fight: Gilchrist

England's innings victory in the first test against Pakistan showed Australia face "one hell of a fight" in the forthcoming Ashes series, according to their vice-captain Adam Gilchrist.

"We were getting the feeling over here, even before this, that England really had the wheels in motion and were going to give us one hell of a fight," said wicketkeeper-batsman Gilchrist.

England, who beat Pakistan by an innings and nine runs at Lord's on Sunday to lead the two-match series 1-0, start the five Ashes tests against Australia on July 5.

"Beating a good side like Pakistan in three days is, well, a fantastic effort whichever way you look at it, and it will give them a lot of confidence for the rest of the summer," Gilchrist was quoted as saying by Australian Associated Press.

"It should be a very good, hard competitive series and we're looking forward to it."

Australia are still ranked the top test team in the world despite a recent 2-1 series loss in India, while England have won their last four test series.

Gilchrist said Australia needed to assert their dominance with the ball through pace bowling trio Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie.

"It's going to be a matter of who can keep their bowlers fit over what is a very long tour, and then get them peaking at the right times," Gilchrist said.

"(Andrew) Caddick and (Darren) Gough can obviously make the most of the conditions over there, but so can our blokes."

Caddick and Gough took 16 of the 20 wickets as Pakistan were bowled out for 203 and 179 in the Lord's test.

Mail Cricket Editor