Australia cricket captain Ricky Ponting wants a showdown with the same England team that won the Ashes last year when the two squads meet again in November.
In an interview on Tuesday, Ponting said Australia are preparing for the five-Test series in expectation that England will field their strongest team. He placed little emphasis on reports of injuries to key players Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones.
”You’ve got to remember that these guys have been ruled out a long time ago … and there’s still four months to go,” Ponting told the Australian Associated Press.
”It’s a long time to get over any sort of injury. I’m pretty sure they’ll want all those three guys out here if they can get them here, so that’s the way I’m looking at it.”
Ponting said he was looking forward to a rematch to avenge the Ashes defeat in England last year.
”I’d love to play exactly the same team again, if that [is] possible. Our team will be fairly similar as well I think, just looking at the way things are going at the moment.
”We feel that we’ve got things really going in the right direction at the moment. If you look at what they’ve been doing you’d probably say they’d be the opposite,” Ponting said.
But he urged Australia’s players not to let their eagerness for revenge prevent them from playing to their full potential.
”We did that last time,” he said. ”We won’t do that again. We all wanted it so much. When we got put under pressure in a couple of Test matches [in 2005] … I think that actually got in the way.
”That’s something we have to be really conscious about.”
Ponting said he will make that message plain when the team meets in late August.
”We’ll all get together and we’ll talk … and make sure that we’re not treating it any differently or any more serious than any other series we’ve played in,” he said. ”The more you sometimes build things up, the harder it can be to perform.” — Sapa-AP