Ponting aims to hit England early

Ricky Ponting wants to dent England's morale early and said the two one-day series would be crucial to gain a mental advantage ahead of the Ashes in July. Speaking ahead of the team's departure from Brisbane, Ponting said it was crucial that the Australians dominated the one-dayers and created a few doubts in the minds of the Englishmen before the Test series.

"It's important that we get off to a good start in the one-day series," Ponting said. "I'm not a big believer in taking momentum from a one-day series into a Test series, but if we can create some doubts in a couple of individuals' minds then that'll be good for us. Those guys obviously haven't played much against Australia and I've heard different things that they think that could be a good thing for them."

Ponting acknowledged England's fantastic run over the last year, but said some of their players might still have some apprehensions coming into the series. "The other thing is that they haven't been successful against the best side in the world," he said. "They'll always have a few doubts in the back of their mind if they actually can compete against us."

He added that England wouldn't gain too much out of their current two-Test series against Bangladesh. "It's good for those guys to be playing some Test cricket at the moment but by the time we get there it's coming towards the end of their summer, which will be a good time for us to play as well," he said. "So they won't take a lot out of that and we won't take too much notice of what happens."

Ponting spoke of the hype surrounding the forthcoming series, but said the side was used to handling the pressures. "If our batsmen play as well as we can that's going to be the key for us," he said. "It's up to us. There's going to be a lot more pressure on everyone during this series just because it's England. There's no doubt about that, but the great thing about it from our side is that there's been expectations on this team for five or six years. We go into every single series as favourite and this one's going to be no different."

John Buchanan, the Australia coach, believed the offerings from the players taking part in the English County Championship - such as Shane Warne and Simon Katich - could prove crucial. "In terms of tactically preparing, and certainly preparing against some players that we may not have come up against regularly then the input of Shane or Simon or Michael Hussey, who have been over there, is always good," he said. "Any little bit of information we can get is always valuable."

Australia begin their tour with a one-off Twenty20 match on June 13 before squaring off against England and Bangladesh in a triangular series. They play England three more times after that series in the lead-up to the opening Test at Lord's that begins on July 21.