"It will be great to take Australia on" - Joe Root excited for 2023 Ashes series

England's talismanic batter Joe Root remains excited about taking on Australia in the 2023 Ashes series. The right-handed batter conceded that England have a point to prove and are in good stead, given their recent fortunes.

Australia, who retained the urn in England in 2019 with a 2-2 scoreline, will revisit next year to defend it. However, with England in rampaging form, it will be far from easy for the visitors, having previously anticipated otherwise.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Root stated that they are in quite a good place to challenge Australia for the urn after beating the likes of New Zealand, India, and South Africa at home.

"It's a great opportunity for us and how we played our cricket under Ben last summer, it's a very exciting place to be with a big series like that coming around. We've proven to ourselves we can do it against two of the best teams in the world in our own conditions so it will be great to take Australia on and take that one step further again."

England haven't held the Ashes since the 2015 leg at home when they beat Australia 3-2. With Ben Stokes and Co. winning their last nine out of ten Tests, there is more than an even possibility of them regaining the urn.

"The interest around Test cricket in this country goes up a notch" - Joe Root on the Ashes

Joe Root. (Image Credits: Getty)

The 31-year-old feels the stakes are the highest during the Ashes and that Edgbaston couldn't have been a better venue to start the series. He added:

"Everything ramps up. The interest around Test cricket in this country goes up a notch. To be starting at Edgbaston as well - there's an unbelievable atmosphere created in that ground so it's going to be a very special summer of cricket, and Test cricket in particular, with it being an Ashes summer."

Australia beat England by a wide margin of 251 runs when the two teams collided in the 2019 Ashes series. Steve Smith scored twin centuries to fashion a famous victory for the tourists.