AUSTRALIA captain Ricky Ponting has started the pre- Ashes war of words by claiming a half-fit Andrew Flintoff can have little positive impact on the destination of the urn.

Ponting, and his relatively inexperienced squad for the forthcoming ICC World Twenty20, landed in Birmingham on Thursday to little fanfare – lacking the big-name draws of 2005 such as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist.

After some light training in Nottingham yesterday morning, the Australian skipper faced the media for the first time since his arrival in a press conference at Trent Bridge.

And after revealing his “relaxed, fresh and rejuvenated”

state of mind following four weeks away from the game, he suggested he had already claimed an advantage over the likes of Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen by staying away from the Indian Premier League.

The Lancashire all-rounder has been ruled out of next month’s Twenty20 tournament as he continues to recover from knee surgery, after suffering an injury during his stint in the IPL.

Since returning from the lucrative event, staged in South Africa due to security fears, Pietersen has also been laid low with an Achilles problem.

Ponting is, meanwhile, fighting fit and believes Flintoff has it all to prove if he is to reclaim the heights of England’s 2005 Ashes triumph, and avoid the ignominy suffered when he captained his country to a whitewash defeat Down Under 18 months later.

“That’s going to be the great decision the England selectors are going to have to make come the First Test,”

Ponting said.

“Flintoff is obviously very important to their make-up and set-up. Maybe, as we saw in 2007, if he’s not 100% fit then maybe that sort of impact he can have around the team is not there.

“2005 to 2007 we saw two completely different players and that had a lot to do with the level of fitness that he had under his belt going into each series.

“That’s where they’re going to have a tough decision to make.

“I don’t know where Pietersen’s at at the moment, I’m not sure how bad his problem is, but they could face something similar there as well.”

While stopping short of condemning the pair’s decision to play in the IPL ahead of a packed Ashes summer, Ponting could not have been happier with his decision to stay away.

“For me it was pretty simple, it was about how long our summer was and how much cricket we played,” he said.

“It was a good opportunity for me to have a couple of weeks off cricket and make sure that when I got here for the start of this tournament I was in the best physical and mental shape I could be.”

Of Flintoff and Pietersen, he added: “There was obviously great incentive for those guys to go and play with the amount of money they went for and I guess they were always coming back from the IPL early for the Test matches.”

England’s Test side appear to be in good shape heading into the Ashes after a comfortable 2-0 series victory over West Indies.

However, the level of opposition offered by the tourists in that particular series was questionable, and Ponting warned England they were going to have to step up their game to have any chance against his men. “From the England side, they played some very good cricket against the West Indies but the competition and opposition they’ll be coming up against us is vastly stiffer than what they’ve faced in the last few weeks,” he said.

Australia open their tour with two 20-over warm-up matches before their ICC World Twenty20 campaign begins on June 6 against West Indies, with Sri Lanka providing their other Group C opposition.

After the tournament they will then have two games to prepare for the all-important first Ashes Test in Cardiff which starts on July 8.