De Villiers doesn't share Botham's pessimism over Aussies' Ashes prospects

South African captain AB de Villiers has reportedly said that the Australians are preparing for a bigger counter attack especially after losing to England at Edgbaston and vouched for the Australian cricket team's Ashes prospects.

De Villiers' comments on Australia come as cricket commentator Ian Botham had said that Australia is an inferior team and England would have defeated them even in Mars, Sydney Morning Herald reports.

According to the report, Botham had predicted the England will beat Australia by 10-0 score between July and January next year, even though the Ashes campaign will not begin until July 10.

However, de Villiers is confident that Australia has good chances of competing in the Ashes and priming themselves up against England, despite Botham's insistence that only bad weather can sustain Australia during the Ashes as England is a 'far superior' team and have won the last two Ashes encounters.

Botham had said that he strongly believes that England can easily defeat Australia that has not played good cricket off late and the England players only need to believe that they can do it.

Botham also opined that although the Australian team consists of fighters, they are not only struggling to keep a fast bowler on the field for more than one game at a time, losing batsmen like Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey has caused a big loss to the team.