Australia and Clarke will fight: Bayliss

England coach Trevor Bayliss has warned of another Australian resurgence and has cautioned his players not to underestimate Michael Clarke despite the skipper's lack of runs so far in this Ashes series.

Bayliss's side are the toast of English sport this weekend after they stormed to an eight-wicket thrashing inside three days at Edgbaston to secure a 2-1 series lead.

The win means victory in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge, starting on Thursday, will see the urn return to England and condemn Australia to their fourth consecutive Ashes defeat on British soil.

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Despite carrying all the momentum with them to Nottingham, Bayliss is wary of another stunning form reversal from the tourists.

The Australians responded to their first Test defeat in Cardiff with a 405-run thrashing at Lord's a fortnight ago, a fightback Bayliss had warned of after England’s victory in Wales.

And recent history suggests he has every right to be concerned.

England have not strung together consecutive Test wins for 12 months and their recent record of WLWLWLW is the longest run of inconsistent results in Test history.

"I was right (after Cardiff) and they probably will (fight back) again," Bayliss said of Australia.

"You don't have the success over a period of time that they've had without being able to put those things behind you, as we did ourselves in this game.

"If (the inconsistent streak continues) we win 3-2. We will take 3-2. Obviously we want to win the next one and take the fifth game out of it. We’ll certainly be playing to win the next match.

"I think we can take some lessons out of this match. Some of the Australians will be under pressure, as we were in this game, and hopefully we will be able to build on that pressure in the next match and not let them up off the floor.

"The message to the boys is 'go away and relax for a few extra days but come back with their own personal plans in place'.

"I think that was the big change for us in this game. I think guys had their own plans in their own minds and went out and did it. I felt in London that we just got away from our individual plans on how to bat and bowl against this opposition.

"Confidence is a great thing to have, but we've got to be aware that we had that after the first Test and we got to Lord's and I don't think we bowled terribly well with the new ball on day one.

"We've got to have that in the back of our minds and work out exactly what we've got to do."

England's Australian coach Trevor Bayliss speaks to the press after his team's thumping third Test win on day three at Edgbaston

Bayliss is also wary of a resurgence from Clarke, who conceded on Friday that his form in this series had been akin to England fielding 11 players against Australia's 10.

Clarke has posted scores of 38, 4, 7, 32 not out, 10 and 3 in the series so far and has not passed 50 in 10 Test innings since his memorable century against India in Adelaide late last year, averaging 22.50 in that time.

It's a lean patch of form not seen from Clarke since his dramatic slump midway through the 2013-14 Ashes, which came after he posted consecutive centuries to start the series.

On that occasion, Clarke went 11 innings without a half-century before breaking the streak with a courageous unbeaten 161 against South Africa in Cape Town that secured a memorable series win.

And Bayliss says he wouldn't be surprised if the 34-year-old responded in similar fashion next week.

"Michael has had a long career and had a few runs of form like this in the past and he’s come back from them," Bayliss said.

"The last thing I want to do or England want to do is forecast his demise because that’s just giving him ammunition to come out and score a heap of runs.

"He is a guy with plenty of experience and lot of Test runs behind him. We are certainly not taking him lightly and fully expect to see him in the next match."

England have taken a 2-1 Ashes series lead with Ian Bell and Joe Root seeing England to victory with a session to play on day three at Edgbaston

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