Australia captain Ricky Ponting is not worried about a lack of Ashes experience in his squad.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting is not worried about a lack of Ashes experience in his squad.

Ponting is one of just six members of the 16-man squad named today - along with vice captain Michael Clarke, Brett Lee, Simon Katich, Brad Haddin and Stuart Clark - who have previously toured England.

There were also just five players named who took part in Australia's Ashes whitewash in 2006-07 as the selectors largely kept faith with the men who claimed a series win in South Africa earlier this year.

The squad contains a number of relatively inexperienced players - the likes of Phillip Hughes, Andrew McDonald and Peter Siddle - who impressed against the Proteas.

And Ponting thinks that series will stand them in good stead, despite the new challenges of an English summer.

"I don't really think that's a great hurdle for us at all," Ponting added.

"Going to South Africa we went there with a less experienced team because we've got an extra three Test matches into some of these guys now.

"You don't face many tougher tasks than playing South Africa over there and our guys came through particularly well so that really excites me about what we've got coming up on this Ashes tour.

"Inexperience, it can be something you want to steer away from but as I said we've got a great balance of youth and experience so hopefully when the big moments come around it will be all of us who stick up our hands and get the job done over there."

Although Test veterans Lee and Clark are back in the squad, they face a battle to dislodge the impressive unit which emerged victorious from South Africa when the first Test begins in Cardiff on July 8.

Mitchell Johnson, arguably the best pace bowler in the world at the moment, and Siddle seem certain to play, leaving the returning pair to battle it out with McDonald and Ben Hilfenhaus for the remaining berths.

"Fully fit and at their best they're going to assert a lot of pressure on the bowling group that was in South Africa," said chief national selector Andrew Hilditch.

"But that being said I won't come away from the fact that we were really happy with the bowling group in South Africa. We think it did exceptionally well."

Clark, who admitted there were times while recovering from elbow surgery that he thought his international career was over, believes his Test record will hold him in good stead.

The 33-year-old's unerring line and length and steep bounce have yielded 90 wickets from 22 Tests, including 26 wickets from the last Ashes series at home.

"It's going to be good competition and something I'm looking forward to," Clark said.

"Everyone's got their own little niche. If you can perform all the skills you are going to have more chance of playing.

"The guys that do the job time and time again generally get picked.

"That's what I'm banking on, that I've been there and done it before and been successful."

Siddle said his efforts in South Africa, where he claimed 12 wickets at 22.5 runs apiece, were a strong case for his inclusion in the first Test.

"I just think the performances we showed over there, the way we played together and the way the fast bowlers and players combined on the field I just think it was a successful unit over there and it paid off over there," he said.

With no Shane Warne in the squad for an Ashes series for the first time since the 1990/91 series, Nathan Hauritz was the only spinner named in the squad.

There were no places for veterans Andrew Symonds and Brad Hodge, while South Australian Graham Manou, wicketkeeper Haddin's understudy, was the only uncapped player in the XVI.

Shane Watson joined fellow all-rounder Marcus North in the initial squad announcement, despite being under an injury cloud and not bowling since December.