No retirement plans for Ponting post Ashes

Ricky Ponting is not planning to retire from Tests after the Ashes and Australia's selection chairman is hoping he maintains the desire to stay on. Ponting's camp has dismissed speculation he is considering standing down and Andrew Hilditch has stepped in to support the 35-year-old's long-term ambitions.

Hilditch does not believe Ponting, who has been in charge for 71 matches, is mapping out his retirement plans. "I'd be expecting Ricky just to be focussing at the moment on trying to win back the Ashes, which is the highest priority for him and the team," Hilditch said. "I suspect he hasn't thought much about his future past then, [the Ashes] is just a high priority for him at the moment. I'm hoping he achieves that goal and is playing well and wants to play on."

Last month Ponting again toyed with the idea of going back to England in 2013 in an effort to correct the mistakes of the past two Ashes tours, but his batting has begun to wane to the point he is now successfully attacked by rival teams. Since The Oval defeat Ponting has averaged 40.61 in 10 Tests, the figures of a good player instead of a great of the game. When his 209 against Pakistan is taken away, an innings which began with a dropped catch, his mean falls to a modest 29.5.

It is hard to believe Ponting will continue if he can't recapture his elite standards, and a farewell involving the Ashes and the World Cup could be enticing. One thing Ponting won't do in the meantime is back down, not from pulling early in his innings or demoting himself in the order.

There has been talk of Ponting slotting in at five or six, like Steve Waugh and Allan Border when they finished their careers, and allowing Michael Clarke to enter at first-drop. Hilditch won't be suggesting a move. "I'd be expecting him to play out his career at No.3," Hilditch said. "That's where he's always batted, and played such a great role for Australia in that position, so I wouldn't envisage it changing."

Australia's next Test duty is a two-match series in India in October, with the Ashes beginning in Brisbane on November 25. Shane Warne has called the schedule "a shambles", but Hilditch is not concerned and believes the contest against the No.1-ranked side will be ideal ahead of England's visit.

"Two hard Tests against India, I think it's a really good preparation," he said. "It will be tough, this is their first real break for a couple of years, and they are playing in somewhere we haven't been terribly successful.

"It's a real big challenge, it will be a monumental one for them, but it will get them very quickly Test-match hardened for the Ashes. All I can say is that preparation won't be an excuse. There's plenty of cricket."

Australia are currently on a two-month break after finishing a disappointing tour of England, which included a lost one-day series and a drawn Test campaign with Pakistan. The time off gives some key players a chance to recover from injury and Hilditch expects Nathan Hauritz, the offspinner, to have overcome his foot problem in time for the India tour.

He said Brad Haddin was also on track for the trip and had resumed batting following a lingering elbow problem that prevented him from going to England. Peter Siddle, the fast bowler, won't be ready for India, and is due to return from back stress fractures in the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa next month.