England have Gabba hope amidst historical horror

England's history in Ashes cricket at the Gabba is poor overall but amidst the carnage there is hope that a momentum swing in this series is possible.

England have lost 13 of 22 Ashes Tests played at the Brisbane ground, including seven of the past nine.

However, in the last 37 years England have won the Ashes three times in Australia and on all three occasions they put in strong showings at the Gabba, which gave them the kick-start to go on and dominate Australia.

In 1978-79 during World Series cricket the trio of Chris Old, Bob Willis and Ian Botham ran through Australia's batting in the first innings and Derek Randall made a pair of 70s.

In 1986-87 Botham smashed 138 and Graham Dilley and John Emburey had five-wicket hauls in both innings. Then in 2010-11 a magnificent unbroken 329-run stand between Alastair Cook and Johnathan Trott secured a draw and changed the early momentum of the series, with England going on to win 2-1.

Former skipper Michael Vaughan said those positive historical results would not be front and centre of England's mindset ahead of the Gabba Test that starts on Thursday.

"The other thought is that every time we've been beaten heavily at the Gabba we have lost the series," Vaughan told AAP.

"I don't think England look at the past or look back in time. "They don't do that. That's not the way they play."The way England will try and win it is their way and that is by playing the expansive game.

"The key question is: Can England get the conditions in their favour and capitalise? They had them in their favour in Perth but failed to do so."

Vaughan said the grinding and attritional cricket played by Cook and Trott in their second innings rearguard was not part of the current side's overall modus operandi.

England's best batter Joe Root is more than capable of a long and defiant innings."He's the one attritional player that they have," Vaughan said.

"They need big scores from Joe at No.4. If they get big scores from him they will be fine."

England batter Ollie Pope said England would not be daunted by past failures as they aim to rebound from the first Test loss in Perth.

"I wouldn't say fear, no. Absolutely not," Pope said.

"It is a great stadium and obviously a bouncy pitch. It is just excitement going into this game.

"Obviously we know Australia have a good record here but we saw West Indies went and turned them over (in 2023-24) so we kind of take that as a bit of a positive.

"But at the same time, we don't try and look too much into those things as a team. We realise there's challenges that (the Gabba) is going to pose but at the same time, I think if we can put our best foot forward, hopefully we can get on the right side of the result."

"There's going to be a real good atmosphere, lots of English fans again and obviously again quite a bouncy pitch, probably the second-bounciest after Perth. It's just being real clear about how I want to go about it this week."