Battered finger to keep Ponting out of the slips

Ricky Ponting has given up the Australian captaincy and now it seems he is bidding farewell to the slips cordon.

Continuing troubles with the finger Ponting fractured during last summer's Ashes series mean he will not be fielding in the slips on the tour of Sri Lanka.

The little finger on Ponting's left hand remains an unpleasant sight, having been operated on twice and knocked around numerous times in the field during the World Cup campaign that brought his Australian captaincy tenure to an end.

While the digit has benefited from Ponting's first extended holiday for some years, its relative tenderness will mean the new captain Michael Clarke will need to look elsewhere for a second slip fielder, where Ponting has traditionally stood in Tests ever since the spot was vacated by Mark Waugh in 2002.

"Maybe down the track [I will field in the slips again]," Ponting told ABC Radio. "It's going to be a confidence thing for me as well, I need to know that I can move quickly for balls low to my left and not worry about copping a nasty one on the end of the finger again.

"I won't start there in the one dayers we've got coming up, but if I'm confident and I'm not getting any pain in the finger, and the captain thinks I'm one of the best slip fielders we've got, then I could be back in there one day.

"I had two screws and a wire put in it before the World Cup, just to get through and be able to play in that tournament. I got through fine batting in the World Cup, fielding was a bit of an issue, every time I copped a bit of a knock on it, it was almost like I was re-breaking it again, so I went back home and had the screws and the wire out.

"It's a lot better now, I've got a lot less pain in every movement than I had before, and certainly the batting I've done in the last couple of months I haven't noticed it at all so that's a really good sign."

Looking ahead to Australia's demanding schedule over the next 12 months, Ponting said it was important that the team took small steps towards improvement, concentrating on lifting itself to No. 4 in the ICC's Test rankings before looking any further.

"I think the most important thing for us right now is we don't necessarily talk about getting back to the No. 1 ranking, because we've got to get to No. 4 first, then three, two and one," Ponting said. "So we'll take small steps at the start, I think we've got enough quality players around the group for us to get back to No. 4 pretty quickly.

"We learned some lessons last year on disciplined Test match cricket, I think England were more disciplined than us and played better Test match cricket than us, and if we can learn from the mistakes that were made last year, that'll go a long way to helping us become a better cricket team this year."

While Ponting acknowledged the loss of Simon Katich, he argued the future of the Australian team was promising, particularly given a developing battery of fast bowlers from which to choose.

"A notable out with Simon Katich not being in the contract list, so you'd think Phil Hughes will slot into that spot," he said. "I'm looking forward to working more with him on his game and helping him develop into a very good international cricketer which I think he can be. With Usman Khawaja around the group as well I think he's someone who's got that real Test match technique that you can build a player around, which is a really good sign for us, that's what we need as a batting group.

"The fast bowling stocks around Australia at the moment, if you look at our young guys, are probably as good as they've been since I've been playing the game. Pat Cummins, [Josh] Hazlewood, [Mitchell] Starc, [James] Pattinson, Ryan Harris is still relatively young in international cricket but at his best is as good as anyone, Peter Siddle, [Mitchell] Johnson, we've got a real good group there at the moment, and we've got to nurture them, keep bringing them on. But you read those names out and you think there's enough ability there for us to win our fair share of games."

Ponting and Clarke will depart for Sri Lanka on Thursday as part of the limited overs component of the squad. The Twenty20 players are in Colombo ahead of two matches against the hosts from Saturday.