Australia prepare for format switch

Ricky Ponting has arrived in Durban ahead of Friday's first one-day international confident that Australia can turn around their form after losing the Twenty20 series 2-0. The squad will train on Wednesday and Thursday at Kingsmead, where some of the players enjoyed wrapping up the Test series victory less than a month ago.

Shane Harwood and David Warner have flown home after the Twenty20 matches while South Africa have also named a slightly different group for the 50-over format. They are hoping to have Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis available after they missed the Twenty20s through injury and Ponting felt the changes would mean a fresh start for both teams.

"I've been on the record for a number of years saying I don't really take much from series to series as far as momentum goes," Ponting told AAP. "Quite often you've got a vast changeover of personnel from each team.

"I'd be surprised if the South Africans go into the first one-day game with the same team. Sure you want to win every game that you play and you give your absolute best to win every game that you play. But as far as any of this carrying over to Friday, I'd be surprised if they are even talking that way about it."

The five-match one-day series presents Australia with a chance to regain their No. 1 ranking after South Africa claimed the top spot by winning 4-1 in Australia. A key factor for the visitors will be the form of Nathan Bracken, who was uncharacteristically expensive in Sunday's Twenty20 loss when his four overs in Centurion leaked 44 runs

"Nathan's great strength in the last couple of years has been that he has been able to combat everything that the batters have been able to throw at him with his changes of pace or out-thinking them or his execution being so good," Ponting said. "But having not played in that sort of pressure for a while, I just think he was probably a little underdone with his skills. I'm sure he'll really knuckle down with his work this week."