Jason Gillespie has said that England deserve to be favourites to win this summer's Ashes series.

England, who retained the urn in Australia two years ago, are being tipped to win the five-Test series on home soil this summer.

The former Australia fast bowler told The Australian newspaper: "They are incredibly confident over here but they deserve to start favourites, England, no doubt about it.

"I think potentially they could underestimate our bowling. I've been speaking about it quite regularly over here and saying, 'Don't underestimate the strength of Australia's pace bowling attack'. But England won't underestimate Australia. They're too clever for that and I know the England management has already been doing a lot of research.

"Coming up against the Australian batting order, they will rightly feel they're in the game. They feel they can put Australia under pressure and can have Michael Clarke coming in consistently very early, at two or three down for not very many."

The first Test will take place at Trent Bridge in July.