Steven Smith says there is "a lot of belief" in Australia's changing room ahead of their opening Ashes Test against England, and is confident the hosts can "turn it around" if they endure a difficult start. 

The 2025-26 Ashes series commences on Friday, with the Baggy Green looking to retain the urn they have held since 2018.

Australia's preparations for the opener in Perth have been far from ideal, having lost two key bowlers to injury in Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

Yet, having taken over the captaincy from Cummins, Smith is confident there is plenty of character in the squad to deal with adversity, pointing to last year's turnaround against India as inspiration.

"I think you want to try and win the first Test match and get yourself ahead of the game, I suppose, or the series," he said.

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"But I think either way we look at last summer [against India], we lost the first Test match, and we were able to claw the series back.

"We've got a lot of belief in that changing room that if the result doesn't go our way this week, we can turn it around. We saw it last year. So ideally, we will play well this week, and we've got potentially [Cummins] on the table next game."

Australia have won seven of their last eight men’s Tests, including their last three in a row, but their last defeat in the format came in the final of the World Test Championship 2023-2025 (by five wickets vs South Africa); while England have lost seven of their last 10 men’s Tests away from home (W3).

Smith is gearing up for his ninth Ashes series, and fifth on Australian soil, and called for focus from his team-mates as the anticipation rises.

"It's pretty standard," he added. "I've been involved in a few now, and there's always so many words said before the series.

"But for us, I think it's about just ignoring the outside noise, concentrating on our processes, what we do well as a team and trusting and backing that throughout.

"It's exciting that we're starting [on Friday]. Everyone's been raring to go for the last few days of training and even before that."