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Kevin Pietersen set out his stall with characteristic bravado yesterday ahead of the Ashes series by telling Australia's tourists: "We're not scared." As England and Australia prepare for tomorrow's first Test at the Swalec Stadium, Pietersen said he and his team-mates were braced for a testing opening session, despite the absence of the injured Brett Lee.

But he added: "The guy who came hard at us in the last two series was Glenn McGrath. He's not there any more, so they'll have to rely on someone else. It'll be a big, big series. We expect it to be tough, but we're also going to come out hard and come out fighting, because we're not scared."

England are well aware that the Ashes entrée can easily define the main course. In 2005, Steve Harmison hit each of Australia's top three on a raucous opening morning at Lord's; in 2006-07, his first ball looped deflatingly to Andrew Flintoff at second slip. Pietersen believes the new-look nature of the Australian team will not detract from the fight.

"Any team that loses Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer and Martyn is not going to be as strong because those guys are legends," he said. "Yes, their team is weakened, but the Australian way is to come out and be fierce, competitive and dominant, and throw a lot of punches early in the series."

There were moments as Pietersen addressed the media when he seemed determined to play down the significance of the series and at one point described the first Test as "a game of cricket between two teams who want to win". But the straight-talker in him kept re-emerging, and he even had the confidence to declare England could win the series if he underperformed.

"There's no great expectation on me in the England dressing room," he said. "If you look at the last 12 months, [Andrew] Strauss has got hundreds, [Alastair] Cook has turned his fifties into hundreds, Colly's [Paul Collingwood] got hundreds, [Ravi] Bopara's got three in a row, [Matt] Prior's got runs. We've all got runs, so I don't think it's as big an issue as everyone thinks. I have confidence that the guys will perform. If they get me out cheaply or if I have a bad series, England can still win, but I don't ever intend to have a bad series."

Pietersen began running last week following achilles trouble and claimed he felt "pretty good" compared with a fortnight ago. But he cautioned: "The cortisone injection's still in my system, so we'll only know when it comes out."