Batting at No.3 has led to form he wants to forget, but Ricky Ponting is not considering moving down the order in a bid to regain form ahead of a packed eight-month program.
Since the start of last summer, the Australian skipper has averaged just over 40 with one ton in 18 Test innings - hardly ideal figures as he prepares for one of the "great challenges" of his career.
However, Ponting has backed himself to return to form during a gruelling schedule that includes October's tour of India, the Ashes Down Under and the 2011 World Cup.
"Last year for me Test-wise is one of those years where I look back and almost write it off," Ponting said at the Australian team's camp on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
"That's the great challenge for me - batting at No.3 and being a leader of this side.
"There is a lot of responsibility on me to be a consistent run scorer and probably over the last 12 months I haven't been that.
"I have to get back there again."
Asked if that would entail moving down the order, Ponting said: "No - not in the forseeable future anyway.
At one stage averaging more than 60 at Test level, Ponting's numbers are still impressive at 54.61.
Not that he was satisfied.
"If I am averaging 54 now I have to push that up again, up to a level I know I am capable of playing at," Ponting said.
"I am working as hard as I ever worked."
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