Southampton: Australia pace ace Mitchell Starc has said England can expect to face plenty of short-pitched bowling from his team in the upcoming five-match One Day International (ODI) series.

The first game of the five-match series will be played in Southampton on Thursday.

Starc believes the Australia’s speedsters can “definitely” trouble the English batsmen with the short ball, cricket.com.au reported on Wednesday.

“I reckon we can probably bowl a lot more bouncers than we did in that Twenty20 game,” Starc said. England beat Australia in a T20 match on Monday and also won the five-match Ashes Test series 3-2.

Even though Aussie pacer Mitchell Johnson has been rested, the hosts will still have to face a strong four-pronged pace attack. Starc, along with Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile and James Pattinson, can register speeds of more than 150 kilometres per hour.

Starc said he is glad to call the pace trio friends and not foes.

“Yeah I’m glad I don’t have to face it,” he said. “We’ve all played with and against each other for a while so to be in the same team and be pushing for spots especially [is great] and [we] just push each other at training to try and get better.”

“Someone mentioned how fast Patty [Pat Cummins] was bowling the other day so it’s good to see him going well, bowling quick and taking wickets.”