“Johnson needs careful management”

"Troy is obviously working really closely with him," said Australia captain Ricky Ponting. "What you don’t want to do with youngish blokes – Mitch is still pretty new to the game and pretty new to fast-bowling really – is fill his head full with too much.

"We have to be careful of the way we manage him over the next little bit. He’s up for the challenge.

"He’s continually trying to make himself better in all aspects of his game. He’ll continue to do that this week."

"It was only a week ago that we dominated the Test match as well," said Ponting, referring to the draw in Cardiff. "We shouldn’t forget that, and it’s important that all the players don’t forget that."

"We had a very proud record here until now and it is disappointing losing any Test match," he said. "Losing on the biggest stage you can play Test cricket on makes it that little bit more disappointing.

"We have some fine-tuning to do on our skills rather than recharge the batteries."

Ponting said: "I think it’s rubbish. We will see.

"If Flintoff can bowl like he did (yesterday) I don’t think there is any danger of him not playing the next Test."