England need to do many things if they are to claw their way back into this series, but high on their to-do list must be to take Ricky Ponting out of his comfort zone. He is an extremely versatile batsman, capable of scoring runs in all environments, but when the pitch is good (as they usually are in Australia) and the boot is pressed on the opposition’s throat (as it is on England’s now) then a big score from “Punter” is as close to a racing certainty as you can get.

England’s first aim should be to get on the nerves of the Australia captain. The finest batsman of his generation has a temper — his history of bar-room scraps testifies to this, as do the flashes of anger when things do not go his team’s way.

Ponting will often openly question umpiring decisions he is unhappy about, such as the leg-before given against Damien Martyn at Old Trafford in 2005. Then there was the episode during the Trent Bridge Test when he was run out by substitute fielder Gary Pratt. The game and series were tilting England’s way and Ponting stormed back to the pavilion in fury, only to see the England coach, Duncan Fletcher , smiling down at him from the home side’s balcony. The air turned blue. Ponting was fined by the match referee.

And only three months ago, in a meaningless one-day tournament in Malaysia, he lost his rag so completely when umpire Asad Rauf made a call of “wide” that he was fined his entire match fee. Revealingly, the Sydney Daily Telegraph reported the story under the headline “Ponting’s bullying tactics: here we go again.”

Ponting apologised profusely and confessed that his outburst was “one of those heat-of-the- moment things that I tend to get wrapped up in from time to time”. Because of his previous misdemeanours, another indiscretion would merit a suspension. What more incentive do England need? Few batsmen come closer to resembling a run-machine. Since England’s last tour Down Under, Ponting has amassed 3,040 runs on home soil at an average of 92.1. He has scored eight centuries in his past 17 innings. But like almost every batsman who has played the game, he remains vulnerable early on, especially when the situation is tense.

His first-innings century in Adelaide was a classic case in point. Ponting’s corner of the dressing room is among the messiest, but not half as messy as his progress to 50 on the third morning. The stakes were high: England had posted 551 and by the fourth over of the day had claimed their second wicket. That morning Ponting had addressed his team and encouraged them still to think in terms of victory. He had, therefore, to give a lead.

Easier said than done, even against this Reliant Robin of an England attack. As it happens, they combined to bowl really well at him. He was rattled.

Ten overs into the day, he pulled a short ball from Matthew Hoggard high into the air but clear of fielders. Soon after, Steve Harmison, generating decent pace, nearly made him play on.

Then on 35 he pulled at Hoggard again, a flattish stroke, but not flat enough. The ball flew straight to Ashley Giles at deep backward square. A more attuned man might have held the chance, but Giles seemed to be caught unawares.

The jitters weren’t finished yet. When James Anderson came on, Ponting drove and edged just short of gully. He then played and missed. Then he survived a leg-before shout; the ball was just going down leg. Soon he went for a foolish single that would have cost him his innings had Paul Collingwood’s shy from midwicket hit its target. All this, remember, on a pitch deader than a Norwegian parrot.

So, despite a staggering 447 runs from the Ponting blade so far, England should not despair. This little Tasmanian devil has scored more runs (6,741) and centuries (26) at No 3 than any batsman in Test history, but England should study recordings of his first half-century and his eventual dismissal for 142 — caught behind pushing at an outswinger directed outside off stump — steel their hearts and say not, “There is a way” but, “There are several ways.” And Ponting’s record at the Waca is not great, with only one century in 13 innings there.

Before this series England had done better than most at keeping him quiet. Especially in English conditions, they have known how to bowl to him. Keep the ball outside off stump, make it swing away, and let him nick to the catchers in the close cordon. But don’t stray too wide, or he will murder you.

The trap that most sides fall into is that they bowl for leg- befores when he comes in, because one of his earliest flaws was identified as a tendency to play around his front pad while his head fell away to the off side. Darren Gough, who has dismissed him more often than anybody in Test cricket (eight times), became expert at nailing him this way. Ponting is still susceptible to that, but bowlers attempting to pin him in front are playing a high-risk game. If they stray even marginally towards leg, he is liable to drill them through the on side, where he is formidably strong. Look at the leg-side bias during his centuries in this series: 130 of his 196 runs in Brisbane, 81 of his 142 in Adelaide.

The other thing England might consider doing is picking a wicket-taking spinner capable of dismissing world-class batsmen.

In his early days Ponting was so shaky against spin, notably India’s Harbhajan Singh, that it was feared it might end his Test career. But he worked hard to rid himself of that bogey.

It helps when you don’t have to face Shane Warne, but it would be fascinating to see how Ponting fared against Monty Panesar. One suspects that he would cope well, and probably take it on himself to hit Panesar out of the attack, but the left-armer has an impressive list of big-name scalps to his credit already. And he might just produce the kind of wonder ball he sprang so memorably on Younis Khan at Headingley last summer.

But that would probably be way too radical for Fletcher.