MIKE Atherton's taken on a tough job - squaring the Ashes series against the awesome Aussies.

He's stepped into the breach as England skipper for the Lord's Test next week and I know he'll give his all.

I played under him on my first tours of Zimbabwe and New Zealand. I found him to be a good captain and got on very well with him. Tactically he is excellent and he has a great will to win.

It is unfortunate for him that he had a rough time during his long-term captaincy. Sometimes it is the team's fault and not the skipper's that things don't go right.

He's got a big job on his hands because the Aussies are so strong.

What scares me is comparing their middle order with ours which is inexperienced. But I reckon we can still get back in it.

I saw Adam Gilchrist's last 50 on television and he hit some cracking shots to all areas of the field. He hit the ball very hard but he was also placing his shots with great skill.

I thought Jason Gillespie was the pick of the bowlers. He bowled with pace consistently throughout and put the ball in the right area of the pitch and swung it. He always seemed to make the batsmen play. He's the sort of bowler any kid should watch and learn from. Even I'm still learning from the likes of Gillespie.

There were a few raised eyebrows when Darren Gough said he'd like to lead England.

But it is not as daft as it sounds.

Goffy has a lot of experience, he's tactically aware and likes to lead from the front.

He also knows the Australian players, and how they play, very well.

England have tended to go for batsmen-captain in the past. The last bowler-captain was Bob Willis.

The team would certainly play with a smile on its face under Goffy. But he didn't have too much to smile about personally against Surrey in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy this week.

Goffy had a poor day but that happens to all us bowlers occasionally.

Gary 'Mouse' Fellows and Craig White played out of their skins against Surrey.

It was a great win for us in a game that went into two days.

I thought they batted particularly well on Wednesday night when they came together at 84 for 4. They kept up with the run rate and got us ahead on the par score before the end of play which meant if no play was possible yesterday we would have won under the Lewis Duckworth scoring method.

It was really dark when they batted on Wednesday night until 8pm. I've played in a day-night match that finished before then when we beat Lancashire last year.

It was a strange game because of the weather. We were on and off the field so many times on Wednesday and it was very blustery.

I bowled all my ten overs into the wind and it was hard work but I was fairly happy. I only conceded two boundaries and to get the Hollioake brothers out with successive balls was very pleasing.

The whole team were going up to David Byas' farm at Kilham in the Yorkshire Wolds for a barbeque today.

After training on Saturday we are pencilled in for some golf at Scarborough South Cliff before our Norwich Union Leicestershire at North Marine Road.

We quite often get big crowds at Scarborough where the supporters are close to to the action. The only trouble for us fast bowlers is that the wicket is a bit flat and some of the boundaries are a bit short so you can go for a few runs.