RICKY Ponting may have turned the corner with England cricket fans, but the Australian captain does not expect too warm a reception when he plays what is surely his last Ashes Test on English soil starting on Thursday.

While the booing that has followed him for much of the series was replaced by applause in last weekend's two-day match against the England Lions, Ponting knows better than to count on a send-off reminiscent of Shane Warne's in 2005 at the same ground.

"If I get a clap I will be happy, let alone than anything else," Ponting said with a grin.

"Last week in Canterbury was terrific I actually got clapped on the ground and got clapped off the ground and it might have been because I only made 45 they clapped me off.

"I have enjoyed every moment of this series, it has been great Test match cricket and it has been great to be a part of a series like this. It just goes to show that Test cricket is alive and well."

With the series locked at 1-1 and England needing a victory to wrest the Ashes from Australia, Ponting believes he is under far less pressure than opposite number Andrew Strauss - something the tourists are keen to exploit.

"It is fair to say that he has a few more things on his plate at the moment than we have, but as we know with this game of Test cricket, things can change very quickly," Ponting says.

"It was only a few weeks ago that I was sitting here answering those same sort of questions."

Strauss has re-shuffled his middle order after the axing of No.3 Ravi Bopara and will introduce debutant batsman Jonathan Trott at No.5.

Australia, meanwhile, look the more settled side following their comprehensive win in the fourth Test at Headingley.

"If you look right back to the start of the first Test, there has probably been very few instances in this series where we played very poor cricket," Ponting said.

"Most of the games we have played in we have had very dominating periods in them and that is what we need to do this week.

"We need to put England under pressure and if we do that then some of those things that Andrew is going to have to worry about and think about will hopefully raise their heads."

The future of Australia's involvement in the Ashes

Michael Clarke has shown in the Ashes series there is a lot more to him than meets the eye.

On the surface there are the spray tan, the fashion shoots, the designer clothes, the model fiancee and million-dollar lifestyle.

But there is also one hell of a resilient cricketer.

He has carried injuries, taken knocks to all parts of his body and yet stood head and shoulders above every other batsman in the 2009 series.

 With Ricky Ponting's stellar career winding down, the future of the Australian team is almost certain to fall into Clarke's hands.

Marcus North makes a possible case for the captaincy if he maintains his flying start to his career but the young vice captain's ascension is almost inevitable.

When Ponting departs is unknown but the next Ashes series in 2010/11 in Australia or the 2011 World Cup might just about pull him up.

Clarke is unashamed of his working class roots in south-western Sydney but he is cut from a very different cloth than the likes of recent former captains such as Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor.

They were very much everyday blokes while Ponting has been something in between, a no-nonsense down to earth guy from Launceston at heart but also a modern-day superstar.

The Fifth Ashes test gets underway at 8PM  AEST at the Oval in London.