David Willey talks up England Champions Trophy bid

Bookmakers are offering the hosts the shortest odds of any of the eight nations competing in the tournament, which begins next week, even though a 50-over triumph has eluded England in every one of the previous 18 major tournaments.

In five finals - three in the World Cup and two in the Champions Trophy - England have come up short, but a new belief has been fostered among Eoin Morgan's team since they crashed out of the World Cup's group stages two years ago.

Yorkshire seamer Willey was not scarred by that embarrassment after making his one-day international debut just after and perhaps that is why he speaks with such confidence about what England could achieve next month.

"We're down as favourites which I think is fair," he told Press Association Sport.

"We've got a very good side, we play an aggressive style of cricket and Morgs leads from the front with that. It's going to be an exciting tournament, hopefully I'll play some part in it.

"I don't think too many of the guys read too much into pressure. We go out there and be as positive and aggressive as we can and try and concentrate on what we're doing, we don't get sucked into too much of the other stuff. We just play our brand of cricket."

A litmus test for this English side, currently ranked fifth in the world, will come prior to the Champions Trophy with a three-match Royal London Series against South Africa, the team currently leading those rankings.

The trio of Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler are all available for the opener at Headingley after being at the Indian Premier League, with the former in particular buoyed by a sojourn with Rising Pune Supergiant that saw him win the competition's Most Valuable Player award.

He did so having been purchased for a record-breaking £1.7million price tag that did not weigh him down and England's Test captain Joe Root believes heaping such expectation on Stokes only increases his productivity.

"That sums up Ben perfectly: the more pressure and responsibility he's given, the more you get from him," Root added.

"It's great to see him come back full of confidence and hopefully ready to go up another level now.

"It's similar with guys like Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Sam Billings, all those guys who went out there, you can see the development that's gone on within their games.

"That can only strengthen English cricket. The more opportunities that can be provided like that, giving people a chance to go to these tournaments like the IPL, the Big Bash, you'll see that benefit us as an international side." 

Yorkshire colleagues Willey and Root were speaking at the opening of new net facilities and a changing pavilion at Bradford Park Avenue, where £5.5million is being spent to restore the ground.

"It's a great opportunity for guys to come here and use these free facilities, learn their trade and learn cricket," Root said.

"I'd have loved something like this growing up, it's brilliant. Hopefully this will encourage people to come into the sport and for the guys already involved to keep getting better and hopefully we'll see more guys from the Bradford area get into the Yorkshire and international set-ups."