"What I am demanding of our team is we have an even contribution from all of our players," said Ricky Ponting.
"As we saw in 2005, you can have a couple of stand-out guys and still not win.
"Obviously I want some of the guys to have some of the best series of their careers but I want all of us to be able to contribute at different times. That is what made us as successful as we were in South Africa recently.
"There is no doubt there is a lot of hunger within the group to build on things we felt we started there. Our level of play over there was exceptionally high and we want to maintain that through the next couple of months.
"Where we were deficient in 2005 was not winning the critical moments in the series. We made enough mistakes to give England the opportunity to win some of those games.
"I am sure we won’t make those mistakes again. If we are good enough we are good enough, and I have a really good feeling we are going to be good enough."
Ponting said: "We obviously want to win the series. There is a great hunger around the group, no more so for me than any of the other players.
"The really impressive thing is, if you have hardly played a Test, or as many as I have, the hunger and desire to do well for yourself and for your mates is as good as I have ever seen it around our team.
"That’s an exciting thing for me. We will give it our best shot.
"We know what brand of cricket we need to play and know what to expect from the English, so all in all you will see another exciting and highly dramatic Test-match series.
"From my point of view, I don’t necessarily want to contain the excitement. I want to go out there and express myself and express my excitement at being part of this series. That is what all the players will be doing."
"I remember going down to his house just after his kit arrived with his baggy green, his jumper and playing shirts," recalled Ponting.
"Just to go through the bag and touch the baggy green cap was, for me, where the dream of playing Ashes cricket really all started.
"To then have played with the great players I have means I have some great memories of Ashes cricket. I have a thousand Ashes memories.
"I think I have still got a few good years of cricket left in me. The way I am feeling at the moment body-wise and how excited I am about this series, I don’t know where the finish line is for me in my career.
"It might be my last Ashes tour and if that is the case then so be it."
"No-one has written off his chances of playing in the second Test just yet," said Ponting.
"It was a relatively minor injury on the scan but as we know with fast bowlers, and that part of the body, they can just take a little bit longer than expected.
"The pleasing part of the injury was he didn’t feel it go at any particular time. He had some stiffness in his whole body.
"We will keep our fingers crossed he will be back sooner rather than later."