Australia may consider changing their long-held preference of batting first in one-day cricket and opt to chase scores at the World Cup to ease the pressure on their under-performing bowlers.

For decades, the reigning world champions have usually opted to bat first and set the pace after winning the toss.

But after conceding the four greatest run-chases in limited-overs history during the past 14 months, captain Ricky Ponting admits a change of thinking may be in order.

"We're going to come up against some small grounds in the World Cup, so the consideration of batting second in one-day cricket is something there to think about," Ponting said.

"That straight away eases a bit of the pressure on the bowlers."

New Zealand successfully chased 336 and 346 in the final two games of the Chappell-Hadlee series to claim a 3-0 whitewash over Australia.

Worryingly, only Brett Lee (ankle) was missing from the bowling attack which will fly to the Caribbean next week, and he remains in serious doubt for the World Cup.

On grounds similar in size to those in the West Indies, Australia's bowlers were helpless in stopping New Zealand mow down the second and third biggest run chases in one-day history.

Australia has now lost five straight - their worst losing streak in a decade.

But while Ponting admits there are several areas of concern Australia must address before their tournament opener against Scotland on March 14, he denies the team is in distress.

He does, though, concede, much of the aura surrounding Australia has diminished heading into the World Cup.

"I think it will have an affect on the other teams, they'll say, `hang on England just beat Australia in (the tri-series) finals, New Zealand just beat Australia 3-0, why can't we beat them'," Ponting told a business luncheon in Sydney.

"I think other teams around the world will be thinking Australia are beatable now, where only a few weeks ago everybody was wondering how any other team in the world was gong to compete with us."

Ponting later told reporters: "I don't think the team's in any dire straits at the moment.

"We've had a few injuries and lost a few guys, but I'm pretty confident that we'll be ultra competitive in every game we play.

"If you sat back and look at the results only and you notice that we've lost five games in a row, it doesn't read that well, but I think right through everyone of those games we've done lots of things well, but we haven't done them well enough for long enough.

"We've got some areas we need to address, but we've got a little bit of time now ... there's a good chance for the guys now to freshen up after a long summer for a few days, and we'll get over there and make sure we're working as hard as ever on our game."

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