WATSON APPERANCE ON RISK IN 2ND TEST

Former skipper Ricky Ponting weighed into the Shane Watson fitness debate on Tuesday by saying that the Australian vice-captain cannot play in the second Test against South Africa if he's not fully fit.

Ponting said the injury-prone all-rounder would put too much pressure on his teammates if he played against the Proteas carrying a calf muscle strain.

A decision is expected to be made on Wednesday or the morning of Thursday's match with Test rookie Rob Quiney on standby to retain his number three spot.

Watson, 31, took a fitness test on Tuesday as he pushed for a recall as a specialist batsman for Thursday's Adelaide Test.

Watson completed a number of running exercises but was not at full stretch in his workout at the Adelaide Oval.

Ponting said that Watson was looking good in the nets but was restricted from doing anything else in the field except slips catching.

"It doesn't matter what we think as teammates -- he will have a certain lot of criteria he will have to pass," Ponting told reporters.

"There will be a certain amount of running he will have to do to prove that he's right to play a Test match."

"No one can go into a Test match 70 percent fit. I don't care if you're a batsman and a slip fielder. If you can't bat at 100 percent, then you are putting pressure on the other blokes as well."

Ponting, who will turn 38 next month and is set to play in his 167th Test match this week, said Watson would have to run freely between the wickets when batting.

"Someone has got to run with him between wickets and I'm sure that will be in the back of his mind and it will certainly be in the back of the mind of our physio and doctors that are looking after him," he said.

The first Test ended in a tame draw at the Gabba with Australia taking the plaudits for their fighting comeback.

Pujara, Ojha climb up in ICC charts

Fresh from his match winning unbeaten knocks of 206 and 41 in the first Test win against England in Ahmedabad, Indian middle order batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara has more things to smile about as the ICC released the updated ranking list. Pujara, who was placed at 59th in the batting chart prior to the game has now sky-rocketed to 24th, a gain of 35 places.

Pujara is not the sole Indian to have made big strides. Pragyan Ojha has entered the top-5 for the first time in his career after reaping a match haul of 9/165 in the recently concluded Test. He is now placed at No. 5 in the bowling chart with 764 points.

Virender Sehwag, who made 117 in the first innings also moved up by a rung to be placed in the 22nd position.

Elsewhere, Rangana Herath, who took match figures of 11/102 in the Galle Test against New Zealand also made impressive progress as he reached a career high 828 points to be placed 4th in the bowling chart. Alastair Cook, who made a gallant 176 in a losing effort in the Ahmedabad Test also returned to the top 10 of the batting chart. He gained 4 places to be placed at No. 7 in the list.

Kieran Powell, who scored centuries in both innings of the Test match against Bangladesh at Mirpur has jumped up by 19 spots and is now raked 51st in the batting list.

Meanwhile, Jacques Kallis has replaced Bangladesh all-rounder, Shakib Al Hasan as the No. 1 in the all-rounder chart. Despite a poor outing in Galle, Kumar Sangakkar heads the batting chart in Test cricket while Dale Steyn remains the man to beat in the bowling department.

However, Hasim Amla who trails Kumar Sangakkara by just 4 points in the Test table has a chance to be the No. 1 ranked player in both Tests and ODIs with a good show during the Adelaide Test.