Border predicts 2-1 win for Australia

Allan Border has tipped a 2-1 Ashes series win for Australia, but he warned the hosts would under-rate England "at our own peril". Border said Australia's home-ground advantage would prove crucial in the campaign to regain the Ashes.

"Overall, England are a good cricket team, but I just think at home we have got the players, as long as they all stay fit, to get those Ashes back," Border told AAP. "If England have some injury problems I think we will win and win well, but if they get their full complement here I'll give them a Test match and I think we will get two, so 2-1 will do me."

Border, the second-highest run-scorer in Test history, nominated the allrounder Andrew Flintoff as England's main threat, but said Steve Harmison and the captain Michael Vaughan could also cause damage if they recovered from injury. "To me they still have the basis of a very good team once they get all their players fit," he said. "If they keep Flintoff fit and they get Harmison back and Vaughan back after his knee injury they'll be very competitive. We under-rate them at our peril."

The first Ashes Test begins on November 23 at Brisbane and Justin Langer, one of Australia's injury concerns, has been cleared of lasting damage after he was struck by a Makhaya Ntini bouncer in his 100th game in April. "I had some tests during the week and I passed with flying colours," he said in The Courier-Mail.

Langer will use a six-week assignment with Somerset to get some game time in the lead up to the Ashes. "The fact is I have not faced a ball since that last Test in South Africa," he told the paper. "If I don't go it would mean I had not played cricket, or faced bowling in a game, for probably five months before the season starts. This will be excellent timing to get in among the action again."