The Ashes is on the corner as rivalry heat up England skipper Joe Root rubbished the reports of his team being afraid of the Australian bowling attack and and called on the Steve Smith-led side to `bring it on` as the two sides prepare to meet each other in the upcoming Ashes series. "There's been a lot of talk. Some of it exciting and some of it is a load of rubbish. Especially from some of the Aussie players,”quoted Joe Root skipper of England.

The 26-year-old further insisted that his side are better prepared for the level of aggression they might encounter from Australia in the Ashes than they were four years ago, when England were beaten by 0-5. Last week, Australian spinner Nathan Lyon had said that all of the home bowlers would be focusing on targeting Root. Reflecting on the same, Root said that he ready to be targeted by the opposition bowlers and insisted that he would leave the pre-series chatter to Australia.

Earlier this week, England's pace bowling attack took a hit when Steven Finn was ruled out of the Ashes series with a knee injury. He was replaced by Tom Curran. Ben Stokes and Toby Roland-Jones were earlier also ruled out of the Ashes series due to their respective issues.

While Toby Roland-Jones will miss the Test series against Australia due to a stress fracture in his lower back, Stokes was sidelined in the wake of the ongoing investigation into the street brawl incident in Bristol last month. The 2017-18 Ashes series will be played at five venues across Australia between November 23, 2017 and January 8, 2018.