STEVE Davies feels that leaving New Road has helped put on him the plane to Australia.

The former Worcestershire wicketkeeper heads Down Under this week as part of England’s Ashes squad.

Having left the County last autumn for Surrey, the 24-year-old gloveman averaged nearly 50 in the LV= County Championship Division Two in a side that finished third from bottom and in the Clydesdale Bank 40 he scored 485 runs at 60.62.

Davies, who is England’s one-day wicketkeeper, claims his move to the Brit Oval has helped him take his career to the next level.

“It was tough leaving Worcestershire,” he said. “But it was something I decided to do to help my career — I think it has had an impact.

“One of the main reasons why I moved was because I wanted to play for England.

“I needed to score a lot more runs than I was doing at Worcester and I wanted to play on a better wicket, which is why I chose Surrey.”

However, Davies, who scored 887 runs in Division Two last season, scored 952 in his last campaign for his home county.

Three of his former team-mates, Alexei Kervezee, Dar-yl Mitchell and Moeen Ali, all surpassed the 1,000-run mark last season in a promotion winning side.

Davies, who is one of 13 players in the squad who ply their trade at grounds that stage international cricket, heads to Australia as back-up to number one wicketkeeper Matt Prior and the Bromsgrove-born player cannot wait to arrive in Perth.

“I’ve been to Australia be-fore, which was brilliant,” he said. “But it was just five weeks in Perth, practising and watching Tests. Now I’m involved, I’m chuffed, really excited. It’s the tour you want to be on.”

Davies believes England can win on Australian soil for the first time since 1987 and retain the Ashes.“Confidence is high,” he added. “We won the World Twenty20, then beat Bangladesh, Australia and Pakistan.”

England fly out to Perth on Friday morning with their first practice three-day match against Western Australia beginning on November 5, where Davies could face former Worcestershire team-mates Steve Magoffin and Ashley Noffke.