One day captain Ricky Ponting says the Test side's brisk scoring rate is making the transition to limited overs cricket an easier one for the Australian team.

Australia scored 1,796 runs in the first three Ashes Tests this summer at a run rate of 4.08 an over, a healthy turnover for a team in the abbreviated form of the game.

It was an ominous warning before the one-day tri-series - also featuring Sri Lanka - begins with a day-night match between Australia and England at the SCG on Friday week.

With Darren Lehmann's recent elevation to the Test side, there is now only two changes of personnel between the Australian team in creams and the unit dressed in coloured outfits.

Test captain Steve Waugh and Justin Langer make way for Michael Bevan and allrounder Shane Watson.

Under Ponting's tenure, the Australian one-day side has gone from strength to strength after national selectors axed Mark and Steve Waugh from the team earlier this year.

"The way we batted (in the Tests) it probably seemed a bit that way at one stage," Ponting said when asked if the Test side played as aggressively as a one-day unit.

"When I was batting the other day we were scoring at over six (runs) an over, it is not a deliberate plan, it is just the way things are happening.

"We are a very confident side, all the players are confident and and we are playing that way at the moment.

"The last couple of years we have been able to score fairly quickly when we have batted, the games might be coming a little bit closer together."

But Ponting said the abbreviated form had moved on enormously in terms of tactics since Australia won its second World Cup crown in England in 1999.

"It is a very different game, your mind set is obviously a lot different playing a one-day game compared to a Test match," he said.

However, Ponting conceded he tried not to change his batting style.

"It's fairly similar for me, hopefully I won't change things around too much and approach it the same way, and hopefully the transition won't be too hard," he said.

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