Ashes 2013: England to depart for Australia cricket tour

England's cricketers will depart for Australia on Wednesday ahead of their Ashes defence down under.

Alastair Cook's team will play warm-up matches in Perth, Hobart and Sydney before the first of five Tests starts in Brisbane on 21 November.

England, winners of the last three Ashes series, have not won four in a row since 1890.

Australia have lost seven of their past nine Tests and have not won a game in their past two series.

Cook will hold a news conference at Heathrow airport at 17:45 BST on Wednesday.

The warm-up matches, starting with a three-day contest against a Western Australia XI from 31 October, will give selectors a chance to assess candidates for places in the team for the first Test.

Ben Stokes and Gary Ballance, who are both uncapped at Test level, are competing with Jonny Bairstow for the number six batsman's spot.

Boyd Rankin, Chris Tremlett and Steven Finn are all in contention for the third seamer's berth alongside James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

Yorkshire fast bowler Tim Bresnan will also fly out with the squad to continue his rehabilitation from a stress fracture of the back and is hoping to play some part in the series.

England defeated Australia 3-1 in 2010-11 - their first triumph down under for 24 years - and followed up with a 3-0 triumph on home soil in July and August.

The return series was brought forward by a year to prevent it from directly preceding the World Cup in Australia in 2015.

-BBC