Ricky Ponting has challenged his inexperienced Australia side to produce something special in the Ashes.

Australia captain Ponting leads the defence of the famous urn when play begins in the first Test in Cardiff with an inexperienced bowling attack and a couple of batsmen with only five caps between them.

Whatever combination of bowlers Australia field, none of them will have bowled in a Test here before while top-six members Phillip Hughes and Marcus North only made their debuts this year.

But Ponting said: "I know what all these guys are capable of.

"Right now there is not one guy in our dressing room that has done anything that has really surprised me on a cricket field.

"So what I want to see over the next couple of months is some things that everyone is going to be in amazement at."

Ponting's men avenged their 2005 defeat in the most emphatic manner in 2006-07 but this series is expected to be a lot closer than that whitewashing.

However, Ponting said: "We won't know how close the sides are until the end of the series."

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