GREYWASH

Aussie great labels Poms too old and predicts another ...

FORMER Test skipper Ricky Ponting has sledged England’s star players as too old and believes Australia will rout the Poms for a second consecutive Ashes whitewash on home soil.

“I honestly can’t see England winning a game with this squad of players they’ve got here,” Ponting said.

A war of words has exploded ahead of the Ashes’ opening delivery today in Brisbane and Ponting lobbed a few grenades after playing in the Australian Open golf pro-am with star US golfer Jordan Spieth yesterday.

Ponting said he had been “bullish” for some time about Australia winning the series comfortably but upgraded his forecast into Glenn McGrath 5-0 territory after looking at the age profile of England’s team.

“They’re going to rely on (Alastair) Cook, (Jimmy) Anderson and (Stuart) Broad and, as good as those guys have been, they’re not going to improve as cricketers,” he said.

“I’ve been there myself. When you get to a certain age and you’ve played a lot of cricket, you try to … hang on but you’re never going to get better.”

Ponting said the record of Cook (pictured) in the past few years and his overall record in Australia was not great.

“And they’ve got (James) Vince and (Dawid) Malan and (Mark) Stoneman and these guys playing their first Ashes series, I think they’re going to find it pretty tough.”

Ponting said the only chance England had of competing in the five-Test series was in Adelaide in the second Test on a seam-friendly deck.

In 2013-14, Mitchell Johnson’s terrorising form dominated in Adelaide too and those mental scars have been an aggravating topic this week.

While Johnson is now retired, Ponting said the current Australian bowling attack remained world-class and was equally capable of being dominant.

“I can’t see any vulnerabilities with our bowling whatsoever,” Ponting said.