Ponting flags new roles for 'formidable' David, Short

D'Arcy Short back to the top and more responsibility for new Aussie star Tim David will be some of the first on-field changes to be implemented by Ricky Ponting following his return to the Hobart Hurricanes for BBL|12.

The Australian great declared to cricket.com.au he wants David to bat longer this season and post big scores, flagging that a shift up the batting order might be on the cards.

Ponting, who made eight appearances for the Hurricanes across the first two editions of the BBL and has returned to the club as their head of strategy this season, said the Hobart's recruitment of several overseas power-hitters could free David from the finisher role and get him up the order.

Hurricanes draft picks Shadab Khan and Asif Ali, and replacement international Jimmy Neesham, could all perform a finishing role in the latter overs, and all three have been named in Hobart's squad for their season opener against the Stars at the MCG tonight.

"One thing that I'm really keen to do this year with Tim David is I want him to bat longer, bat more time," Ponting told cricket.com.au following the inaugural BBL Draft.

"He's one of those guys who can make really big scores for you if he gets enough time to do it.

"One thing you don't ever want to do as a coach is have your better players not facing enough balls in the game.

"I talked about loading up the back half (with power-hitters), that might mean we can actually bat Tim higher in the order and know that we've still got power after him.

"Whereas in the past, if we batted him up, there was no power left, so it gives us great flexibility of what to do with our batting order."

David rocketed into Australia's World Cup side this year following his exploits on the global T20 circuit in the 'finisher' role where his 89 sixes in 2022 is more than any other batter in the world this year.

But regardless of his batting position, the 26-year-old told cricket.com.au he wouldn't be altering his mindset.

"I would love to bat for as many balls as I can but I think it's really important I bat with the same intent," David said.

"Sometimes that's not going to come off but with more balls, it gives me a bigger opportunity to try and have a bigger impact for my team."

Another shift in the Hurricanes line-up for BBL|12 is Short permanently back to the top for the order after spending last season in every spot from one to five.

Ponting flagged his intentions to get the damaging left-hander back to the opening slot with cricket.com.au after the BBL|12 Draft in August before confirming the move at the club's season launch on Wednesday.

Short is the competition's fifth highest run-scorer of all-time with the majority of his 2553 runs across his six season scored at the top of the batting line-up.

The 32-year-old started last season opening before a swap with Ben McDermott to the middle-order paid dividends for both as the pair each peeled off more than 400 runs for the season (McDermott 577 at 48 and Short 444 at 37) to finish in the tournament's top six batters.

"We're going to open the batting with D'Arcy this year, he's been up and down the order the last couple of seasons," Ponting said.

"I want to try and reinvigorate him into being one of the best openers in Australia and I think we can do it.

"I watched him in a couple of games last year and there's certainly some technical aspects that he needed to work on and straighten out.

"And he's working on those things every day, so that's a really good sign.

"We've got a brand-new fresh coaching group; Jeff (Vaughan), James (Hopes) and Darren (Berry) who will put their arms around him and give him a cuddle and make him feel really wanted and welcome.

"And if we can get him confident again and playing the way that we all know we can play, then I think he can be one of the leading run-scorers again.

"If we can get that sort of return out of him with McDermott and (Matthew) Wade and then some of the power we've got in the middle-order, it's a pretty formidable batting line-up that we've got.

"But that's going to be up to D'Arcy take it on and we've given him all the freedom in the world to go and play the way that he wants to play."

Hurricanes squad v Stars: Asif Ali (Pakistan), Tim David, Paddy Dooley, Nathan Ellis, Caleb Jewell, Shadab Khan (Pakistan), Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Jimmy Neesham (New Zealand), Joel Paris, D'Arcy Short, Chris Tremain, Matthew Wade (c)

Stars squad v Hurricanes: Adam Zampa (c), Trent Boult (New Zealand), Hilton Cartwright, Joe Clarke, (England), Brody Couch, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Liam Hatcher, Clint Hinchliffe, Campbell Kellaway, Nick Larkin, Tom Rogers, James Seymour, Marcus Stoinis, Beau Webster, Luke Wood (England)