Symonds likely for New Zealand ODIs

Ricky Ponting is confident Andrew Symonds will be fit for Australia's push to regain the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, which begins on December 14. Symonds hurt his ankle while batting in the first innings of the Hobart Test and took no further part in the match after posting his half-century.

"We've got three weeks before the Chappell-Hadlee, I would imagine he would be right for those," Ponting told AAP. "If you look at the way he has batted in the last couple of games, he has gone out when we were looking at declaring and got 50 off 50 balls both times.

"We know how destructive he can be and we saw that in Melbourne last year, that magnificent [Test] hundred he made there. It's not only his bowling. He gives us a fair bit with the bat and he can give us a lot in the field as well. He's a pretty vital cog in our team at the moment so we hope he can be back on the park pretty quickly."

Ponting is keen to regain the trophy after New Zealand surprised Australia with a 3-0 series win in February. During that tour Australia rested Ponting and Adam Gilchrist, leaving Michael Hussey in charge of an under-strength side that came up against some impressive New Zealand batting.

However, New Zealand's results so far on their South Africa tour - they lost both Tests and failed to post 200 in any innings - suggest they are not in the same kind of form as earlier this year. "New Zealand right at the moment they've got a few injuries as well," Ponting said. "Shane Bond is down and Jacob Oram is down. A few of their guys have gone down over in South Africa."

Ponting said a 3-0 result had not reflected the closeness of the February series. "There was a lot spoken about in that series about probably how badly we went," Ponting said. "If you actually look at the games I don't think we played that badly at all. We scored 340 and 350 in a couple of those games and lost. There's extra motivation there."

New Zealand's tour opens with a Twenty20 international in Perth on December 11. The three-match Chappell-Hadlee Series follows with games in Adelaide, Sydney and Hobart before Australia switch back into five-day mode for the Boxing Day Test against India.