England coach Southee unsure on Ashes availability
Tim Southee's last Test for New Zealand was against England in December 2024
- Published
England bowling consultant Tim Southee is "still working through" what his involvement will be for the upcoming Ashes series in Australia.
The former New Zealand seamer is only likely to be available for the first Test because of his participation in the International League T20 tournament, which begins on 2 December in the United Arab Emirates.
Southee, 36, was appointed England's fast bowling consultant in May after taking 391 wickets in 107 Tests for the Kiwis.
Speaking as England's team for the first of three T20 matches against New Zealand was named, Southee said of his availability: "We're still working through that at the moment.
"We'll see what happens over the next little while."
England bowling legend Stuart Broad has declared the Australia side to be their "worst team since 2010", but Southee was in little doubt over what to expect during the series, which starts on 21 November.
"I don't think there's ever a bad Australian cricket team," Southee said.
"Our focus is firmly on what we're trying to do. I think the quality of [England's] side that's going out to Australia is brilliant.
"It should be an absolute cracker, that series. Not only [are] English and Australian people looking forward to it, I think the whole cricket world is."
England white-ball captain Harry Brook has said he is managing to avoid the pre-Ashes discourse, which has included former Australia opener David Warner claiming the tourists are more concerned with "moral victory" than the series result.
Brook says his and England's "main focus" for now is the white-ball series against New Zealand, which begins in Christchurch on Saturday and is an important step towards next year's T20 World Cup.
"I haven't seen any of [the Ashes talk]. We've got an extremely strong New Zealand side coming up and that's the main focus at the minute," Brook said.
"We've got a hell of a long winter, so I'm just concentrating on the first game here in New Zealand.
"With the bigger picture being the T20 World Cup, there's lots of areas that we can improve on. There's lots of areas we can keep on getting better at, so it's just about continuing that momentum, playing together as a group, and heading in the same direction."
England XI v New Zealand: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (c), Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Jordan Cox, Brydon Carse, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood.