Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting is already visualising how new No.1 Test side South Africa will attack him in the much-anticipated series beginning in November.

The series is still close to three months away and Ponting is likely to play four Sheffield Shield games for Tasmania before the first Test at the Gabba.

But the 38-year-old says he’ll be ready to face an attack that knocked England from their perch this week.

“I know the things I’ve got to work on,” he told reporters in Hobart on Thursday.

“I’ve got a really good idea how the South Africans will try and attack me when they bowl to me.

“Come the first or second week of November, I’ll have my game in really good shape.”

Ponting said the likes of speed machines Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel would have stored in their memories their last assault on the former skipper.

That was in South Africa in 2011, when Ponting made scores of 8, 0, 0 and 62 in the two-Test series.

“They hit me on the pad every second ball last time so I don’t think they’ll be bowling too much short stuff,” Ponting said.

“They’re a class attack.”

The Proteas were elevated to the No.1 spot after a 2-0 series win in England, with Australia now at No.3.

Ponting said that will mean little when the Australian summer gets underway on November 9.

“Yes, every team wants to be ranked No.1 in the world but I think when you’re actually there, there’s not much emphasis on it,” he said.

“You still have the same attitude – you want to win every game you play.

“We haven’t been able to win as many games as we would have liked over the last two or three years.

“Our Test summer last year was particularly good so we’ve got to keep building on that and … speed up (the younger players’) learning processes and hopefully get back to No.1.”

Ponting has made no secret of his desire to play on at least until next year’s Ashes series as he bids to make amends for series losses in England when he was captain.

But he knows every failure will be scrutinised as he bids to get to go out on his own terms.

“I think every Test for me is crucial now, every innings I play is crucial and it has been that way for the last 12 or 15 months,” he said.

“I was really happy with where I got my game back to last summer.

“I had to work tirelessly to get my technique back to where I wanted it to be.

“The end of the Test summer was good. When I came back and played the last few Shield games, I felt like I probably played almost as well as ever.”