June 10  
Ponting excited about home debut as skipper in Pak series

BRISBANE: Ricky Ponting can hardly wait for his first domestic appearance as national one-day cricket captain against touring Pakistanis in a Super Challenge II series starting on Wednesday at Melbourne's Colonial Stadium. 

Australia brushed aside a youthful Queensland outfit at Allan Border Field, sending a message of intent to their opponents. 

Ponting said he was excited about leading his country in front of home fans for the first time since making his captaincy debut after replacing Steve Waugh as the one-day skipper in South Africa earlier this year. 

"It's something that everyone dreams of doing and it's less than a week away for me now so I'm really looking forward to it," he said. 

Australia is unlikely to tamper with its first choice opening combination of Hayden and Gilchrist for the first match against Pakistan despite another bright showing by Jimmy Maher at the top of the order. 

Maher hit a brisk 60 off 43 balls to get Australia off to a flying start against Queensland on Sunday but Ponting said he expected the Bulls left-hander would continue to occupy the role of the batting "floater" in the team. "He showed in South Africa that he can bat anywhere in the order and it's good to know that we've got that kind of flexibility with our squad," said Ponting. 

Australia will travel to Melbourne tomorrow to prepare for the opening game of the three-match series with the next two games also at Colonial Stadium on Saturday before the two teams return to Brisbane for the final match on June 19 at the Gabba.