Ponting plays the Pigeon card

The battle for the Ashes resumes tomorrow but the mindgames began today with Ricky Ponting firing the first blow at his counterpart.

Ponting said Michael Vaughan’s return to form for his county is unlikely to help him when he walks out to face Glenn McGrath. Vaughan, who was passed fit for the first day on Thursday after recovering from a blow on the elbow while batting in the nets, scored a one-day century for Yorkshire against Kent on Sunday after a lean spell.

Ponting told reporters: ‘‘It would do him a little bit of good, but you always know when you come back into a Test match you’re going to be under more pressure than you are in a one-day county game. ‘‘Coming back out and facing Lee or Glenn, knowing that he hasn’t done well against us of late, he’ll still have all those thoughts when he comes out to bat.”