Harris picks out 'chief weapon' Starc to 'rip through' English top-order at Ashes

Australian bowler Ryan Harris has singled out his pace counterpart Mitchell Starc as the team's potentially ' chief weapon' for the Ashes series in England.

According to Harris, the Australians had been training with the ball that would be used for the series, with the bowlers achieving significant swing, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Harris further said that if Starc kept going at his current rate since the last year, he will definitely be a force that will rip through the top English order, adding that the pacer swings the ball at a good pace similar to New Zealand bowler Trent Boult.

The experienced Harris also said that being 10 or 15 kilometres quicker than Boult, Starc might be able to cause a lot of trouble for the English batting line than Boult did during the first Test against England.

Citing the performance of New Zealand, which lost the first Test against England this week, but bowled them out for 232 and 213, Harris said that New Zealand showed that if English batsmen are pressurized enough, they will crumble, for which , he added, the Australians should continue to work hard and be consistent.

The Yorkshire cricketer said that the Australians have been practicing on spiced-up wickets with grassy pitches, and have bowled swing on the net, even in cloudy conditions, so that they perform well in the English conditions.

Harris also backed David Warner, who was fined 5750 dollars for breaching Cricket Australia's code of behaviour, after he launched into News Limited journalists Robert Craddock and Malcolm Conn on Twitter in response to an article published by Craddock which was critical of the Indian Premier League.

According to Harris, Warner should not be asked to rein in his behaviour, even though he went about it the wrong way.