Ricky Ponting flies to England on Wednesday as one of Australia’s mostaccomplished Test and one-day players, but his reputation in the Twenty20 set-up is less certain

Peter English26-May-2009Ricky Ponting flies to England on Wednesday as one of Australia’s mostaccomplished Test and one-day players, but his reputation in the Twenty20 set-upis less certain. While Ponting is about to join previous heroes such asSteve Waugh, Allan Border and Don Bradman as players to have gone on fourAshes tours, his high standing as a modern batting master does not guaranteesuccess in the game’s shortest form.Australia are carrying a relatively old, yet inexperienced, team to theWorld Twenty20 and when Ponting leads his men against West Indies on June 6he will be playing only his 16th international. Often whenthis sort of engagement arrives Ponting takes a rest and his wild talentsare much better suited to the longer styles. Seeing him attempt slogs soearly in an innings is unfair on his style, although he is not a tortoise,scoring his 376 career runs at a strike-rate of 131.Even Ponting, an undoubted great in the other environments, struggles whenrating his performance in the freshest genre. “Batting where I do in the toporder of Twenty20 cricket, it can sometimes be a bit difficult,” he saidduring the team’s pre-tour camp on the Sunshine Coast. “Obviously theearlier you get in the better chance you’ve got of making a big score butyou’re expected to play in a certain way. Top-order batsmen are always goingto have their ups and downs in that sort of game.”Ponting has not passed 38 in his previous four Twenty20 matches and knowshis record. “The past couple of games I’ve played have been very poor,” hesaid. “In the two games in South Africa I made 1 in each. It’s not greatform going into a World Cup.”Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist showed in the IPL that age was no barrierin 40-over affairs and while Ponting is only 34, it’s possible that he will notbe embracing all three formats when the next Twenty20 World Cup is held in2010. Australia’s selectors have grown used to chopping older players fromthe one-day side if they are not going to be around for the next globaltournament, but Ponting would not be drawn on when he would shave Twenty20from his schedule.He rejoined the Australia squad on Sunday after missing the series againstPakistan to rest and is fresh and excited ahead of the five-month trip toEngland. The World Twenty20 acts as a two-week warm-up for the Ashes inJuly, when Ponting will walk out hoping his developing Test squad can retainthe urn after a side full of established personnel dominated England in2006-07.Ponting, Michael Clarke, Simon Katich and Brett Lee are only men in thecurrent set-up who have played a Test in England and there is a strongdesire to prepare the younger team members for the experience. “I’membarking on my fourth Ashes tour, so I’ve been around the block,” Pontingsaid. “It will be important to me to get to the younger guys to talk aboutwhat to expect when we arrive.”The first stages of the preparation started on Sunday when most of theTwenty20 squad members, who depart on Wednesday, and national contractholders arrived in Coolum. There are a few missing faces with Andrew Symondsand Cameron White still in South Africa after their IPL commitments whileMichael Hussey joined his team-mates on Monday night. Hussey crossed theIndian Ocean twice in the past week after making himself available forChennai’s semi-final, but he was not considered good enough to be picked andreturned home.Shane Watson, who must prove his fitness from a groin injury over the nextmonth to make the Ashes tour, had a light work on Monday and Ponting said heshould be available to bowl during the Twenty20 tournament. However, Pontingsaid what happened over the next month would not guarantee spots for theAshes. “I don’t think you can take much out of Twenty20 form ahead of Testmatches,” he said. “We’ve got two tour games and that will be the bestchance to get a look at the guys who will play in the Tests. We’ll startthinking of the Ashes make-up in the tour games.”