Ponting declares himself FIT!

Ricky Ponting facing final balls on Christmas morning

Ricky Ponting has declared himself a certain starter for his 13th Boxing Day Test at the MCG and then urged Pakistan to bring it on if they want to launch a bouncer war to test his injured elbow.

The West Indies insisting they exposed a weakness in Ponting's armour, Australia's highest Test runscorer all but pleaded for Pakistan's quicks to bowl short at him.

Ponting is set to swallow his pride and wear an arm guard to protect his damaged left elbow, but he insists he has no fear about being targeted by a bumper assault. Ponting, who has spent several sessions in a hyperbaric chamber after being thumped on the elbow by West Indies firebrand Kemar Roach in Perth, was in doubt until coming through yesterday's net session.

Wife Rianna mouthed "good luck" before he walked into the nets to face Peter Siddle and Doug Bollinger armed with new balls. "I wanted to face Siddle and Bollinger with new balls.

I wanted them to have a bit of a crack as well just to test me out as much as possible, so I thought I better put the arm-guard on," Ponting said. "I went well today actually, I went better today than yesterday. I had a bit of pain in the nets yesterday. I was always going to bat two days into the game. I'm really confident that I can play the game."

The skipper emerged confident he will play today, although Phil Hughes remains on standby. There is no doubt Pakistan's 17-year-old left-arm quick Mohammad Aamer - a Wasim Akram clone - will try to rough-up Ponting.

In combination with fellow pacemen Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif, Pakistan aim to make life uncomfortable for Ponting after they watched Roach get the better of him in the recent series. Ponting, 35, has been short of his best in 2009, averaging 39 with just one century from 12 Tests.

He has tumbled to 14th position in Test cricket's batting rankings - his lowest position since October 2002. However, he insists he is primed for a big score against Pakistan in the MCG Test despite his disrupted preparation for this Test and the discomfort of wearing an elbow guard.