Ponting to lead young Tasmania side

Tasmania have the chance to leap further ahead of the field in their Pura Cup match against Victoria starting on Tuesday with Ricky Ponting to make a rare four-day appearance for his state. The Tigers are already on top of the Pura Cup table with wins from their only two games.

But with rain expected at the MCG this week a result - and the out-of-form Ponting's desire to spend time at the crease facing, among others, Shane Warne - could be difficult to achieve. Tasmania coach Tim Coyle said Ponting would be a great boost to a young squad of 12 that featured seven players aged under 25.

"Having Ricky playing is a rare event for us," Coyle told AAP. "He's really keen to spend some time in the middle in this game so hopefully we can look forward to a few hours of sitting back and watching Ricky Ponting bat. And it's really good to have him around our group. Being as young as we are, it's great to have the Australian captain here."

Coyle said Tasmania's flying start to the Pura Cup season was the result of rigorous training. "We've really put some work into our preparation," he said. "We were fortunate to have really good weather in September in Tassie so we played quite a bit of cricket. The preparation has been ideal because often we suffer with the wickets early in the season.

"I think everyone was just really ready to play in October this year, more so than ever before. Then there's the emergence of some of our young players with some match-winning performances, plus an attack that has taken 20 wickets twice. The four quicks are really doing the job for us at the moment."

Ponting replaces the injured Michael Bevan in Tasmania's side, while Victoria have named an unchanged squad. The Bushrangers, who beat the Tigers in their one-day match on Sunday, are third on the Pura Cup table behind Tasmania and New South Wales.

Victoria squad Nick Jewell, Lloyd Mash, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Cameron White (capt), Andrew McDonald, Jonathan Moss, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Shane Warne, Clinton McKay, Mick Lewis, Gerard Denton.

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