Ricky the waterboy

Sri Lanka has been witness to some odd sights, featuring Ricky Ponting, so far. No longer the centre of attention, Ponting was seen running out with drinks during the tour match in Colombo. After the teams had travelled down to Galle, he could be seen quietly reading a newspaper at the as the sun grew weary at the team's beachside hotel. Worries about team performance and the wider issues of Australian cricket appeared the furthest things from his mind.

Handing over the responsibilities of captaincy has clearly agreed with Ponting, who is happily adjusted to the role of senior pro and top-order batsman. He speaks when spoken to, which means quite often in the case of his successor Michael Clarke, and also the young batsmen who are vying for a place at No. 6 - Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh. As the only member of the current team to have played Tests in Sri Lanka, seven in all, he has plenty of wisdom to pass on.

"What I've been talking to the guys about [is] making sure they get the defensive part of their game right, because, like in all conditions, starting is always the hardest," Ponting said. "But it tends to be even harder in these conditions when you're facing a lot of spin bowling and there are a lot of guys around the bat. Your first 20 balls become the most critical here.

"As you can see you can have 250-run partnerships, then you can lose three or four wickets on top of each other as well, and that's because it is difficult to start. That's what I've told the guys. At home we tend to practice a lot of big shots against spin because there's not much in the wickets and you tend to use your feet a lot and run down the wickets. Whereas here, I think it's the other way - you've really got to work on your defensive side of batting and through the course of an innings, if you make a hundred, you might play four or six big shots for the innings."

Ponting's first Test match visit to Galle in 1999 coincided with the debut of Rangana Herath, the most senior of the home side's spin bowlers. Herath had played in a warm-up match against the tourists, and Ponting can remember the shock of receiving his first carom ball. Now that Muttiah Muralitharan has retired, Herath's crafty variations will be critical to Sri Lanka's attack.

"From memory, I reckon we might have played him in a tour game as well before those Tests; that was where we first got to see this thing [the carom ball]," Ponting said. "I must admit facing it for the first time I was like, 'what was that, where did that come from'? But over the years now, even in the Twenty20 game and the one-day game we have played against him, and the guys picked it up pretty well. But he's a quality spinner - he played well in England for Sri Lanka and we'd expect that he'd be in their starting XI for the first Test."

Prevailing conditions will mean plenty of time fielding close to the bat for Ponting, who doubts he will spend much time at all in the slips even though his battered finger, fractured during the Ashes then nursed grimly through the World Cup, has improved visibly. Instead he is likely to be employed by Clarke as a predatory presence in front of the bat, either looking for run outs or bat-pad catches.

"I think the way it's structured at the moment it'll probably be Michael at second [slip] and Shane [Watson] at first, and over here we probably won't have three slips for too long anyway," Ponting said. "I'll probably end up at bad-pad, Michael will probably have me in there somewhere I reckon when the spinners are bowling. I've always liked being involved in every ball basically. That's the way I've always approached fielding, if there's one little chance floating around through the course of a day's play, I want to make sure I have some impact on the game."

Comfortable as he is away from the captaincy, Ponting acknowledges the difference Clarke appears to be making in the role. The pair have different personalities, and Clarke's buzzing demeanour so far seems nicely suited to a team that is younger and less sure of itself than the one Ponting took to Sri Lanka on his first tour as captain in 2004.

"He's started really well. We're continuing on with a lot of the things that have worked for us over the years," Ponting said. "[But] He's putting his touches on some of those things and no doubt we're doing things slightly differently, because different personalities will deal with things and handle things in different ways. But he's been very proactive and the results are coming. To have the ODI series win here against a side that competed in the World Cup final was a really good start for him as the full-time Australian captain.

"We're chatting a lot out in the field and even leading up to games [on] how players are going and tactics and stuff. I'm just sitting back, not imparting any of my stuff on him, but just waiting for questions to be asked. I think the whole structure we've got around the group is working really well and I'm just happy to be playing my little part in it all."

Even if that little part is running out with the drinks.