England batsman Nick Compton is refusing to take playing in this year's Ashes double-header for granted but the back-to-back centurion admits he continues to dream of facing Australia in 2013.

Compton claimed three-figure scores in consecutive innings against New Zealand in the first and second test matches in Dunedin and Wellington to cement his place in England's top order alongside captain Alastair Cook.

The Somerset man will be required to produce similar heroics in the third test starting on Friday in Auckland, but Compton says his current form doesn't mean his Ashes place is secure.

Nick Compton
Compton scored back-to-back hundreds to cement his top order spot.

"It is at night - you go to bed thinking about the Ashes," he said. "You get that youthful exuberance, which is something that keeps pushing you.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to play in an Ashes series - of course I do. But looking too far ahead and what have you, it doesn't do you any good. You have to make sure you stick to the next game.

"After this series, I go back to county cricket, I get my head down again and make sure if that time arrives I've put my name in the box seat," he said. "I have played enough cricket now to know that that line between success and failure is quite thin.

"The more you play, the more respect you have for the game, the more humility you have to have in some ways - because things can change very quickly. They have on the up here, but they can go wrong (as well).

"You're always on nought (when you start an innings) - remember that as a batsman, it doesn't make any difference whether you've got five or six hundreds behind you," he said.

"There is a lot of cricket to play, going back to county cricket - and then we have another series against New Zealand and then, of course, there is the Ashes. It's a long time, and a lot can happen."

After finishing the county season with an average of 99.60, including five 100s, Compton forced his way into the reckoning to replace ex-skipper Andrew Strauss as opener during the tour of India, where he helped steer England towards a first series win on the sub-continent for three decades.

Questions were asked over his temperament following a first-innings duck in Dunedin, but successive tons have helped answer has critics emphatically.

"You look back over a number of years, and it's a testament to your perseverance and the fact I've kept going," Compton added.

"I'm also happy about the fact that I could back up (my first hundred) - because I think it's important that when you reach some form as a batsman you keep hungry, you keep the desire up, and keep pushing forward.

"There's only so much talking you can do. It comes to the stage where you perhaps feel there's something inside there - but you need to show it. It's nice to put those markers down which say, 'There you go, there's two hundreds'.

"I had a feeling I could do it, but you never really know until you do it at this level. So yes, I'm chuffed that I've managed to pass that test."

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