England's Bowling Consultant Southee Uncertain on The Ashes Availability

England's bowling consultant Southee is still working through the extent of his role will be at the forthcoming Ashes contest in the host nation.

The former New Zealand pace bowler is only likely to be available for the first Test due to his involvement in the International League T20 tournament, which begins on 2 December in the United Arab Emirates.

The 36-year-old, 36, took up a position as the English team's fast bowling consultant in the warmer months after claiming 391 wickets in 107 Test matches for the Kiwis.

Commenting as the English team for the first of three Twenty20 games against the Kiwis was named, Southee said of his participation: "We're still working through that at the moment.

"We will determine the outcome over the coming days."

English bowling legend Stuart Broad had stated the Australian team as their "weakest squad since 2010", but the consultant was in no uncertainty over the anticipated challenge during the contest, which starts on November 21.

"I don't think there's at any time a bad Australian cricket team," Southee remarked.

"The team's attention is squarely on what we're trying to do. I think the caliber of [England's] team that's going out to the host country is brilliant.

"It ought to be an absolute cracker, the Ashes. Not only [are|do] English and Australian people looking forward to it, I think the entire cricketing community is."

But, before the English team travel to Perth for the first Ashes match, they face New Zealand in the city of Christchurch on this Saturday.

England's Playing XI v New Zealand:

• Phil Salt

• Jos Buttler

• Jacob Bethell

• Brook (captain)

• Tom Banton

• Curran

• Jordan Cox

• Brydon Carse

• Liam Dawson

• Adil Rashid

• Luke Wood