Nat Sciver's Ashes Diary: England all-rounder looks forward to the first ODI

England all-rounder Nat Sciver reports from Australia with the first of her Women's Ashes diaries, talking coffee, computer games, cheap clothes and Sunday's opening one-day international...

We're desperate to get underway now! We've been in Australia for about two weeks and while it's definitely been really great for us to get used to Australia and the rhythm of training we'd quite like to play our first ODI now.

It all gets going on Sunday (or Saturday night in the UK) and hopefully we get good weather. I didn't think Australia did bad weather but we've had a lot of rain over the last week.

I think it was nicer in England! The Aussies keep telling us that we've brought the bad weather… the mind games have begun.

COFFEE, COFFEE, COFFEE

You've got to keep yourself busy on tour and it's not always easy. One of the best things that Australia has got going for it is its coffee shops. It's a very social thing out here and with all the rain around we've had plenty of time to visit lots of different places and find the best one.

Brisbane is actually a really nice city and there's been loads to do. It's all built around a river and it seems the South Bank is the place to be. We've made lots of trips over there to test out various restaurants and cafes.

Everyone keeps saying Coffs Harbour is a really nice place as well so hopefully we can keep that going after the first ODI.

We also managed to get out to see a basketball game, which was great. We watched the Brisbane Bullets v Cairns Taipans - very good fun.

DESIGNER FASHION OUTLET

When we've not been finding fun new coffee places or walking on the river we've been shopping. Loads. There's a Designer Fashion Outlet out here and you just can't ignore the discounts.

There's even a 'happy hour' when things become cheaper again. A lot of us have been taking advantage of that, hopefully we'll have enough room left in our suitcases when we go home.

Also, on the theme of fashion, we had a headshot session with all our kits - it was nice to try out the Test kit but judging by my face I wasn't too happy to be papped!

ASHES COMPUTER GAME

Like with most cricket tours there's been a fair bit of FIFA going on but I haven't been too involved in that. There's even been the introduction of a new computer game, a game that features us!

During the World Cup the team making Ashes 2017 came and took 360-degree photos of us with about 100 cameras so it was exciting when they sent us a version of the game to play on out here.

Obviously it's been lots of fun to see us all on screen but we're struggling to be amazing at the game - hopefully that's not a sign of things to come!

ON THE FIELD

It doesn't get much bigger than an Ashes and things are beginning to hot up now. The Australian side have said one or two things in the press but we're not really focusing on that, we want to concentrate on what we're doing on the field.

I'm sure the games will be tough - it's international cricket - but we'll be doing our best to do what we need to do regain the Ashes.

Our preparation, even with the rain, has been really good and I think we're in a really good place. Training's been good and we're all ticking over nicely. Here's to Sunday and a good start in the first ODI!