British and Irish Lions centre Brian O'Driscoll believes that the squad will benefit from having a number of leaders who will be able to help captain Sam Warburton.

The 24-year-old was named as the skipper for the tour of Australia by head coach Warren Gatland, which makes Warburton the youngest-ever Lions captain.

However, with the likes of former leaders Paul O'Connell and himself in the party, O'Driscoll feels that they can all chip in to help support Warburton.

"There's a nice balance to his leadership but I always found when I was captain that I liked it when other people did some of the talking," O'Driscoll told ESPN.

"Then when you talk people tend to listen more so we can help him out in that regard, take some of the pressure off.

"All good teams have leaders throughout and I hope this one is no different."

The tour gets underway in Hong Kong on Saturday when the Lions face the Barbarians.