New England head coach Trevor Bayliss expects his team to "put up a good show" and believes they can beat Australia in the upcoming Ashes series.
Bayliss was last month appointed as successor to Peter Moores, who paid the price for a miserable showing at the World Cup and a drawn Test series against West Indies.
Bayliss left Sydney, bound for the UK on Thursday morning, and was met with a media scrum.
Bayliss was questioned over the Kevin Pietersen saga, but provided few clues as to his stance on the matter.
The mood in English cricket has been perked up by an enthralling 3-2 victory in the one-day international series against New Zealand, before they also dazzled in a 56-run beating of the Black Caps in Tuesday's Twenty20 contest.
Assistant coach Paul Farbrace oversaw those matches, with Bayliss now taking the reins against his country of his birth.
The 52-year-old former Sri Lanka coach is optimistic ahead of the five-match series.
"It's been quite an exciting series against New Zealand in the Tests and one-dayers," Bayliss told Fox Sports.
"England have got some new players with plenty of skill and enthusiasm. It sounds like they are in a good place and enjoying themselves which is the main thing.
"I'm looking forward to it. It's an Ashes series and it will be good fun. I'll be doing the things I normally do with the teams I've been involved with. Hopefully that means England will play some good cricket.
"Hopefully there'll be two good teams playing good cricket and that's a win win for the game of cricket.
"I'm confident of the team putting up a good show and if they play good cricket they'll have a chance of winning."
The first Test starts in Cardiff on July 8.