Tickets for the second and third days of the third npower Test at Edgbaston between England and Australia next summer sold out within hours of being made available to the public yesterday, with only a few hundred tickets remaining for the first day.

Memories of the thrilling two-run Test victory over Australia at Edgbaston in 2005, and hope that England's renaissance will continue under the captaincy of Kevin Pietersen, have increased the appetite for Ashes tickets. While the SWALEC Stadium, in Cardiff, Lord's, Headingley Carnegie and the Brit Oval will begin selling tickets to the public in November, Warwickshire made tickets available to people who had seen a Test at the ground in the past four years.

Tickets for the first three days, priced at £75 for adults and £20 for children (reduced to £10 in the family stand), sold quickly. While no tickets are available for the Friday and Saturday, any corporate returns will be made available on October 1. As of last night, there were 4,500 tickets available for the fourth day. More than 20,000 tickets were bought by Warwickshire members last month in the first release of tickets for the Test, which begins on July 30. Members' areas are sold out for the first four days.

The high demand leads inevitably to exorbitant prices. The most expensive seats at Headingley and Cardiff are £75 and £85 respectively, although junior tickets remain cheap. The Oval and Lord's have yet to decide on their prices, but there is speculation that the first £100 ticket for a Test match could be issued. The most expensive seats for England's one-day international with New Zealand at the Oval this summer cost £103.

If England are in relatively rude health under their new captain, with a sympathetic schedule of matches over the next eight months, Australia may be burnt out when they arrive in England for the World Twenty20 that precedes the Ashes. Between October 9 and April 17 next year, Australia face 12 Test matches, 15 one-day internationals and five Twenty20 matches - away to India, at home to New Zealand, and home and away against South Africa. And that is not to mention the commitments of some of their players in the Indian Premier League.

Australia are expected to begin their tour to India on Sunday as planned despite increased fears over security after more than 20 people were killed in bomb blasts in Delhi last weekend. Officials from Cricket Australia (CA) have been briefed by their government and are due to receive a security report today, but an official said that the tour would go ahead. The third Test is due to be played in Delhi.

“Our advice is there are some concerns and to exercise caution, but currently they do not compromise the tour,” Peter Young, the CA head of public affairs, said. “In consultation with the BCCI [the Indian board], we have upgraded security in and around the dressing-rooms and they [the players] will have an escort to the ground.”

Australia A played in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad yesterday against their New Zealand counterparts, losing the first one-day match of a triangular series by 129 runs. “There is no panic,” Justin Sternes, the Australia A manager, said of the security concerns. “For these young players, getting a game in is more important than anything else.” The ECB said that England would monitor the security situation in India, as they would for any tour, before their visit there in November.

- Ravi Bopara won the Young Cricketer of the Year award last night at the Cricket Writers' Club annual dinner. Bopara, 23, made his Test debut for England in Sri Lanka last December and recorded Essex's first double hundred in one-day cricket against Leicestershire in the Friends Provident Trophy this season.