Ponting confident of smooth transition

Ricky Ponting expects Australia to adapt quickly to the extra bounce of Perth for the start of the South Africa Test series after the less-than-ideal preparation of a one-day series in New Zealand. After experiencing slow and seaming wickets during the Chappell-Hadlee Series, Australia face three heavy training days to acclimatise for Friday's match while their opponents have had two weeks to settle in.

Ponting said the change in conditions and outlooks was more of a "mental" adjustment. "It's not a huge skill thing," he said in The Australian. "We're still playing cricket, we're still getting bat on ball, and the bowlers are expected to bowl certain lines and lengths, it's just a matter of adjusting to those.

"It takes time, anyway, when you're coming from another Test match to go to Perth," Ponting said as the team left Christchurch. "So we'll get there and train really hard and make sure we're as prepared as we can be."

The timing of the one-day series was strange and Cricket Australia has already said it would review the player-workload demands after Adam Gilchrist was originally given the tour off by the selectors before being overruled by the board. Instead of a short summer holiday Gilchrist struggled through the three matches with scores of 3, 8 and 0.

"We'll review the process we had in place for New Zealand and look to make it better," Michael Brown, the Cricket Australia operations manager, said in the Sydney Morning Herald. "Managing player workloads is very important to us."

Paul Marsh, the Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive, told the paper the players supported the idea but in this instance the process was flawed. "It wasn't so much that he played in New Zealand, that's their job and they want to play for Australia, but more the order in which it took place," Marsh said. "If the CA hierarchy didn't want him to miss that tour, they shouldn't have gone to him in the first place. The idea is obviously keeping them fresh and giving them the chance to have long and successful careers."

Ponting said he was not worried about Gilchrist's form entering the Test series. "He's not always going to be the most consistent player, just because of the way he looks at the game and the way he plays the game," he said. "He's performed over a long period of time and I'm sure when he gets home and gets to Perth that he'll be right."