26 July

Before this tour commenced, every player received an email from our coach John Buchanan setting out a list of objectives and basically sowing some seeds for this series.

Amongst the ideas was a compulsory request for every member of the touring party to read a book called 'Who Moved My Cheese?' by Dr Spencer Johnson.

For some of my team-mates this was always going to be difficult as they have rarely read a book since their school days, but nevertheless the request was made.

In a nutshell, the book is a simple story about challenging your methods and thinking in order to seek continual improvement, never settling into the danger of your comfort zone.

This attitude relates to our preparation and in the way we play the game.

We have talked about 'taking the road less travelled' in our approach to this wonderful game.

Obviously we are never going to ignore the basics and we are wary of getting too funky in our approach, but it is an exciting and inspiring process to be involved with this team day in, day out.

A simple example of 'moving our cheese' came on Thursday at training.

Rather than the regular net session, which involves a warm-up, batting and bowling in the nets, some fielding practice and a stretch to finish, Thursday was slightly different.

Over the course of the day, between 9am and 4pm, the squad was split into four separate groups of four players.

In designated two-hour time slots, we trained with only three of our team-mates for two intense hours.

Interestingly, an Australian journalist interviewed me after the session and asked me with a quizzical, almost disbelieving look, why we were training so hard when it seemed to the world that we are so far on top of England at the moment.

His tone suggested that we could maybe take it easy in this series, as we are likely to win this Ashes series in a canter.

We, as a group, know that complacency and a lack of discipline is our greatest enemy from here on in.

We understand how quickly things can change in this crazy game, and therefore we will be pushed to work harder than ever to find the knockout blow that will allow us to leave these shores with the Ashes retained.

It is likely that John Buchanan, in his enthusiasm and determination to see us go forward, is going to be one very tired man.

While we had two hours of practice before retreating to our hotel, he had four two-hour sessions of intensity in the London sun.

Knowing him though, he may be drained, but it would not be a surprise if he, while soaking in a bath, were thinking up his next way of moving the cheese within this team.