Australia yet to rule out Ponting!

Ponting injured his hamstring in the loss to Pakistan

Australia will assess captain Ricky Ponting's injury before ruling him out of the rest of the ICC World Twenty20.

Ponting, 32, pulled a hamstring muscle during Tuesday's defeat by Pakistan and the team physiotherapist had said he would miss the rest of the event.

But a spokesman said: "Ricky has not been ruled out of the tournament yet.

"His hamstring will be assessed over the next 48 hours and as soon as a decision is made by the medical staff, a statement will be issued."

Aussie physio Alex Kountouris told reporters on Tuesday that Ponting's Twenty20 participation was over and called into doubt his fitness for the forthcoming one-day series in India.

"Over the next three to five days we will have a much better indication of where it's heading," he said.

"So we will know whether he will have to go home or be able to go to India.

"The best-case scenario is a couple of weeks. The worst-case scenario is four weeks."

Ponting will definitely miss Australia's last group game against Sri Lanka in Cape Town on Thursday, with Shane Watson likely to be drafted in.

The winners of the game, which is a rematch of the World Cup final, will join Pakistan from Group F in qualifying for the semi-finals.

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If Ponting fails to return, much will be expected of the likes of Adam Gilchrist but the Australia opener and vice-captain has become the latest Twenty20 sceptic, suggesting he would rather watch it than play it.

"The more I play it, I am starting to, not so much like it as a player, but love watching it," said Gilchrist, who insists his team are taking the tournament seriously.

"I am still not totally convinced that over the short term, the skills get to come through as much as they do in the longer formats, so that evens up the games, which is a great spectacle, but we'll see over time."

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said he hoped the format was not the future of the game, while West Indies skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan also voiced his disapproval.

Meanwhile, Tasmanian fast bowler Ben Hilfenhaus will replace the injured Shaun Tait in the 14-man Australia squad travelling to India as Tait has yet to recover from an elbow injury.

"Unfortunately Shaun hasn't recovered in time from his surgery to be able to take part in the upcoming tour to India," said Cricket Australia's Andrew Hilditch.