Australia captain Ricky Ponting will stress to his side the importance of crushing England in their Group A clash in the Champions Trophy, ahead of next month's Ashes series.
Ponting's team was met by about 200 local and visiting media at Australia's arrival news conference in New Delhi yesterday, and the skipper was quick to get on the front foot in the mind games with Andrew Flintoff's England.
"You never know. I never really draw too many parallels between one-day cricket and Test cricket, mainly because there is still a fair while before the first Test anyway," Ponting said.
The Champions Trophy final on November 5 in Bombay is 18 days before the first Ashes Test starts in Brisbane.
"The changeover from one-day players to Test players is quite dramatic (too), so you don't look at that (parallel) too much. But certainly it will be our first chance to play England since the Ashes series and we'd like to think we could make some sort of statement in that game," Ponting said.
Glenn McGrath noted how England took comfort in their semifinal win over Australia in the 2004 Champions Trophy in the lead-up to the 2005 Ashes series in England, won 2-1 by the home side.
"I think most definitely whoever wins will take a slight edge," McGrath said of the Australia-England clash in Jaipur on October 21. Australia's other two Group A matches are against a qualifier on October 18 in Bombay and against host nation India on October 29 in Mohali.
"If you look back at the last Champions Trophy in England, England beat us in the semifinal. Maybe that was an indication of how they were travelling. I think it probably gave their players a bit more confidence."
He said he was working his way back into form and fitness after a sixmonth lay-off to care for wife Jane, who fought a successful battle against cancer.