Gough May Miss Opening Ashes Test

The Yorkshire fast bowler has been plagued by a knee injury which has kept him out of England's Test team for a year.

Doubts over Gough's fitness have led to the England selectors including six fast bowlers in their squad, but none of the others have his experience of Ashes matches Down Under.

Gough said: "They have obviously missed me. I know that when I'm bowling well I'm the best bowler in the country."

Gough has spent the last month training at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall, Staffordshire.

"If I miss the first two Tests but am there for the rest of the winter then I'll be happy," he added.

He told BBC Radio Five Live he did not expect to have to prove his fitness to bowl before the England party leave for Australia.

"From what I have been told it's not a case of me being fit from the start of the tour," he said.

"It's a case of going out and doing the work I've been doing while I'm there, and we'll see how it's going after two or three weeks.

"I would like to be going to Melbourne not having lost the series - it's something we haven't managed to do the last two times we have been there."