Brisbane — Coach Trevor Bayliss says that England are "very confident" of their chances in this week’s opening Ashes Test here despite expecting Australia to hit hard from the start. The tourists have eased through three warm-up games leading into the first Gabba Test, but Australian Bayliss expects the intensity to spike against Steve Smith’s team with the Ashes on the line. England are the holders of the urn after winning 3-2 at home in 2015, but were crushed 5-0 the last time the Ashes were played in Australia in 2013-14. Bayliss said England got everything they wanted out of the three warm-up games and was confident of defying their poor record at the Gabba when the first Test begins on Thursday and pulling off a huge upset. "Australia like to hit the opposition hard early and we have been talking about going hard ourselves," Bayliss told reporters after England’s drawn match with a Cricket Australia XI in Townsville on Saturday. "Over the three games we started slow, then built...
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