Hussain: It's nice when people think you can win Photo © CricInfo Ltd.

England Captain Nasser Hussain has urged supporters not to get carried away with the success of the England team.

"It's been an extraordinary few months for the team. But that's all happened, and we leave next week for Sri Lanka, which will be completely different.

"We have got to concentrate on what we did in the last year and put that into practice this year. But you don't make any plans in this game because it takes only one session for the wheels to come off."

"We have got to be tough enough if that does happen, tough enough to stick together and look at the grand scheme of things."

But Hussain admitted that he was enjoying England's current success after years in the doldrums, and even suggested that the improvements to the national team were coming about quicker than had been envisaged.

"I think we are ahead of course, to be honest," he said. "It's been the other way round - people have expected us to lose. But it's nice to be this way round when people think you can win."

Referring to the Ashes and the series against Pakistan this summer, Hussain commented: "We know Australia are the best side in the world at the moment in both forms of cricket, and we have a lot of hard work to do. And Pakistan? They will be just as strong here as they are at home."

Meanwhile, the England team received a boost from an unlikely cause. Jeff Thomson, the scourge of English batsman in the mid-seventies remarked that the summer's Ashes series could make for a close contest. "I believe England are a better side than they have been for a while – for probably 12 years or so - and Australia haven't been tested a lot lately, as much as they are a good side," he said. "Nobody is invincible. That's a bad word to use."

"Conditions here are different. England have got everything to win and nothing to lose. They probably realise what they've got to do after beating Pakistan.

"England have got a few different players, and it only takes one or two. I think England have got a fairly good side."

Thomson singled out Matthew Hoggard for praise, commenting: "He could give the Australians a bit of trouble."

© CricInfo Ltd.