Beating Aussies on their turf the greatest prize for an English cricketer: Strauss

London, Apr.18 (ANI): Skipper Andrew Strauss has said that beating the Aussies on their own patch is the greatest prize for any English cricketer.

"To win the Ashes Down Under is the holy grail for us. Our best preparation for the Ashes is to play well and win these series against Bangladesh and Pakistan. That's what we've got to do," News of The World quoted Strauss, as saying.

"I think that would be a good starting point for us as a group, to really target playing good cricket throughout the summer. We will have to do some preparation for the Ashes but we can do that concurrently with making sure we're peaking for these games," he added.

"Going to Australia, we're going to need five out of our six batsmen in really good nick and bowlers able to take wickets in those conditions," he said.

He added: "I think we see the Ashes as the ultimate assignment, so it's very hard not to be motivated for that. We'll be doing everything we can to make sure we're as prepared as we possibly can be for that Ashes series and we've got our players in as good a form as possible." (ANI)