A day after John Buchanan comments (realistic or arrogant, depending on where you stand), Ricky Ponting has told The Australian that Australia’s toughest test at the moment might be on the training ground.

"It is all about us stretching ourselves as far as our skills and tactics go … sometimes you can do that in games, otherwise you do it on the training track. If we are not getting what we need to as far as competition goes in terms of these games, we have got to find other ways of doing it."

After today’s farce at Adelaide, you can only think that a net against some local Under-16s might be more taxing.