England fuming over 'pathetic' Lyon sledge

Nathan Lyon has sparked a frenzy on the eve of the first Ashes Test with a sledge that's been labelled 'pathetic' by a former England skipper.

Lyon has fanned the flames ahead of the first Test in Brisbane, saying some Poms remain scarred from their last Ashes series in Australia and that the Aussies want to end the careers of some Englishmen.

"Could we end some careers? I hope so," Lyon said on Monday.

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"I know Joe Root got dropped last time when he was here so it would be good to get him dropped again.

"If we can start by opening up that crack, it's pretty crucial.

"There's a lot of scars for the English guys, especially coming over here, especially when we have two guys bowling 150kmh and not just one now."

Lyon accused some England batsmen of being frightened when facing pace ace Mitchell Johnson during Australia's 5-0 home series whitewash in 2013-14.

"Seeing Mitchell Johnson scare all the Poms was unbelievable," Lyon said.

"I was at leg slip and I nearly had to push a couple of the guys back towards the stumps.

"Leading into Perth we knew that they were broken. We knew Matt Prior wanted to fly home before the game started and he was one of the senior players. He was scared."

Former England captain Michael Vaughan lashed Lyon over his comments, labelling them 'pathetic'.

So did the man himself Matt Prior.

“That’s absolutely laughable,” Prior told The Telegraph.

“If that was the case and I was scared, why didn’t I go home then? I have no idea where this has come from.

"Of all the things he could have come up with? That’s completely ridiculous and all I can do is laugh. It is wholeheartedly untrue.”

The message from former England captain Alastair Cook to his team is clear: the carnage created by Johnson four years ago is "irrelevant".

For Cook, one of only five members of the English squad who featured in the 2013-14 series, it's ancient history.

"Mitch bowled outstandingly in that series, one of the best periods of bowling I've ever faced backed up by Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle - (but) they're no longer playing," Cook told reporters on Tuesday.

"So in one sense it's a bit irrelevant.

"It happened four years ago and it's all what happens on Thursday rather than looking back.

"England have won four of the last five Ashes series, so you can look at what you want."

Cook praised Australia's current pace attack - Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins - but said they hadn't exactly reinvented the wheel.

"There's nothing we haven't seen before in cricket," he said.

"They're not suddenly bowling 150 miles an hour. (They've) not got magic balls which start way outside the stumps and swing miles and stuff.

"They're very good bowlers with good records. As batters, that is the challenge we've got in the next seven weeks."

Cook said it was "really strange" that the only trash talk before the series was emanating from the Australian camp.

"I had a really nice 10-minute chat with Nathan," he said.

"He was the first person I saw when I got to the ground, asking how my kids were.

"It just makes me chuckle, I suppose - it makes everyone chuckle.

"It is what it is. All the talking stops very quickly and the series becomes a normal series after the first two hours."

with AAP