Ponting wary of Vaughan

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has refuted claims that his England counterpart Michael Vaughan will definitely not play in the upcoming Ashes series.

Ponting also expects all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and 2005 Ashes series destroyer Simon Jones - who have both struggled with injury this year - to get themselves up for a defence of the famous urn.

Vaughan has been ruled out of participating in the five-Test series by the England and Wales Cricket board with his knee injury, but Ponting thinks that the declaration is a bit premature given the timeframe until the Ashes begins on November 23.

"It's a long time to get over any sort of injury," he told reporters.

"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.

While Ponting is realistic enough to know that England may field a slightly altered line-up due to injuries, like his teammates, he is hoping that the old enemy will be as close to full strength as possible.

"I'd love to play exactly the same team again, if that was possible. Our team will be fairly similar as well I think, just looking at the way things are going at the moment," Ponting added.

"We want to play against the best England team that we can. 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.

"But as we all know an Ashes series will bring the best out in both teams."

Ponting also tried to stress that the Australians are trying not to get lost in the hyped build-up to the series - which Cricket Australia sold a record amount of tickets in record time for - and to prepare as they would for any opponent on the international rotation.

"The more sometimes you build things up the harder it can be to perform," Ponting said.

"We'll make sure that we're not treating it any differently or any more serious than any other series we've played in.

"We all wanted it so much (last year). When we got put under pressure in a couple of Test matches because we wanted to win so much, I think that actually got in the way."