England under more pressure - Ponting

Ricky Ponting says England are under more pressure than Australia for the Ashes due to their recent poor form and injury concerns. Although England arrived in Sydney on the weekend while Australia were still in Mumbai, Ponting does not believe the extra time to acclimatise will give England an advantage.

"I think it's probably them, it's definitely England," Ponting told The Australian when asked if there was more pressure on Australia or the visitors. "There's more questions being asked of them and their team and their fitness than there is of us. Our record this year has been very good, theirs has not been so good.

"They've won five of their 13 Tests [since the 2005 Ashes] and we've won 11 of our 12. Everyone back in Australia is saying we're going to start favourites, and if that's the case then it probably does take a bit of the pressure off and puts it on to them."

Questions over the fitness of key players such as Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Marcus Trescothick and Ashley Giles could help Australia's chances, but Ponting said he would be watching out for some of England's younger players, who would be keen to impress on their first Ashes tour. The squad includes Ian Bell, Alastair Cook and Monty Panesar, three of the four finalists for the ICC's emerging player of the year award. Bell, who won the award last week, had a horror Ashes series in 2005 but since then has averaged 51.18 in ten Tests.

"His record would speak for itself," Ponting said. "He does look like a good player, he's technically pretty sound and it's going to be how he reacts to the pressure we put on him during the series. Last time around we definitely had the better of him.

"We've seen a bit of Bell, we haven't seen much of Cook and we haven't played an international game against Panesar, but they've all had some sort of impact and we'll need to have a good look at what they're doing." England open the tour with a match against the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra on Friday.