Australia aims to inflict the most embarrassing annihilations in Test cricket history with a typically-ruthless approach on its controversial tour of Zimbabwe.

Skipper Ricky Ponting said the world champions would show little sympathy for a mismatched, second-string home side by going for a quick kill in both Tests in Harare and Bulawayo.

Still hopeful of an 11th-hour resolution to Zimbabwe's complex month-long player crisis, Ponting felt Australia would do more harm to the game if it did not tour.

He demonstrated a blinkered approach to the controversy, stressing his team had to purely focus on cricket despite the selection and race issues which resulted in 15 front-line Zimbabwe players being sacked.

"We can't afford to worry about these things," he said at the end of a three-day preparation camp in Brisbane. "It's completely out of our control.

"We just have to play the best cricket we possibly can and if it's against a second-rate team then hopefully we can finish the games quickly."

A glimmer of hope remained that the rebels, led by former captain Heath Streak, would return to face the Aussies with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union saying the "door is still open".

ZCU chief executive Vince Hogg said any of the 15 would be considered for selection if they showed commitment to national cricket.

The 13-man Australian Test squad flies out on Thursday for the four-week tour which kicks off on Monday with a three-day game against a depleted Zimbabwe A.

Ponting said the current club-strength Zimbabwean Test side, thrashed by an innings and 240 runs by Sri Lanka last week, would not be underestimated and run-scoring world records would not be on the tourists' menu.

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