Ponting to captain Tasmania in Pura Cup

Ricky Ponting will captain Tasmania in their Pura Cup match at home against South Australia starting on Monday. It will be Ponting's second Pura Cup outing in two seasons after his international duties kept him out of state first-class action for three consecutive summers before last year.

Joining Ponting in the side will be Ben Hilfenhaus, who missed the opening Pura Cup match while on tour with Australia in India, while Tim Paine and Chris Duval have been omitted. The 12-man squad also includes Luke Butterworth, who had a hamstring strain that kept him out of the Tigers' Pura Cup opener.

Butterworth is coming off an amazing all-round effort for Tasmania's Second XI against Victoria's Second XI last week. He struck 116 in the first innings and 223 in the second, also collecting 5 for 40 in Victoria's first innings to prove that his Man-of-the-Match performance in last summer's Pura Cup final was no fluke.

Tasmania squad Michael Di Venuto, Michael Dighton, Ricky Ponting (capt), Travis Birt, George Bailey, Daniel Marsh, Luke Butterworth, Sean Clingeleffer (wk), Brett Geeves, Brendan Drew, Adam Griffith, Ben Hilfenhaus.

South Australia squad Matthew Elliott, Shane Deitz, Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Adcock (capt), Darren Lehmann, Andy Delmont, Graham Manou (wk), Ryan Harris, Mark Cleary, Jason Gillespie, Dan Cullen, Shaun Tait.