RICKY Ponting has denied he will retire after his "home" Hobart Test, insisting he will bat on until he feels he is no longer useful.

Rumours have been rife that Ponting, 36, has planned his farewell for Bellerive Oval when the final of two Tests against the Kiwis ends in a fortnight.

But even though selectors have showed their hand by infusing the Australian team with young talent - and with Shane Watson needing to return to the top order when fit - Ponting insisted he had no plans to retire.

Malcolm Conn will blog live on Wednesday at 1pm on whether this is the end for Ricky Ponting.

According to Ponting, you can expect him to bat on to the four-Test series against India, which starts on Boxing Day at the MCG.

"If I think the days have passed where I can't be a good, solid contributor for the Australian cricket team, I will think about not playing any more," Ponting said yesterday.

"But right now there have been enough glimpses from me of some really good stuff to make me think that I can get back to being the player I want to be. I haven't even thought about retirement. If I start thinking about that, then I'm not paying attention to the things I should be paying attention to.

"I plan to keep playing until I feel like I can't play the way I want to play. But I do know that this game is results driven and the results for me haven't been the way I have wanted them to be."

Ponting's 156-Test career may already have been over without his knock of 62 in the final innings of Australia's stunning win over South Africa in Johannesburg.

But the bottom line remains that Ponting has averaged 20 in the past eight Tests and has gone almost two years without a century.

Skipper Michael Clarke said there had been no talk of Ponting quitting.

"I haven't heard Ricky say that at all, to be honest," Clarke said.

"In the conversations I've had with Punter, he hasn't mentioned retirement once, so he's very keen to make sure he puts his hand up in this Gabba Test and score some runs.

"We have a lot of youth at the moment but hopefully the experienced guys can lead from the front."

Meanwhile, Ponting revealed that he had repeatedly pleaded with Cricket Australia to make him a selector when he was skipper - a power that Clarke now enjoys.

There have been suggestions that Clarke has too much pressure on his shoulders with his new job as a selector - one of the recommendations of the Argus Review - adding to his responsibility as skipper and senior batsman.

Ponting was not a selector but revealed yesterday he had "begged" Cricket Australia to make him one when he was captain.

"I actually begged Cricket Australia for seven years for me to be a selector," Ponting said.

"Every time I addressed the board I said I think the Australian captain has to be a selector - because I think you have got the ability to communicate better with your players if you are a selector.

"The captain is the one that is accountable for all team performance and if you haven't got total control over everything that is happening on the field then it is pretty hard to be accountable for everything that happens."

Originally published as Plenty left to give, says Ponting