SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Michael Clarke will take over as  captain of Australia’s Twenty20 team to play England after  Ricky Ponting was given permission to go home after the last  Ashes test.

Ponting will return to Britain to take charge for the bulk  of one-day international series but the selectors wanted to  give him a rest as they start blooding younger players for next  year’s Twenty20 World Cup in West Indies.

“Ricky Ponting is having his workload managed and will  return home to Australia after the fifth test at The Oval and  will miss the ODI against Scotland, the two Twenty20s and the  start of the of ODI series against England,” Australia’s  chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said in a statement yesterday.

“This is the last opportunity we have to give Ricky a break  until next year, with the ICC Champions Trophy, ODIs against  India and of course a full domestic summer against the West  Indies and Pakistan to finish 2009.

“The plan for him to return to Australia before rejoining  the team is considered the most appropriate course of action.
“This gives Michael Clarke another opportunity to captain  the Australian Twenty20 and ODI side.”
Clarke’s promotion is a further sign that he is being  groomed to eventually replace Ponting as test skipper.
Clarke is the current vice-captain of the test side and has  been Australia’s best batsmen this year, scoring two hundreds  and averaging 89 in the Ashes.

The selectors named separate squads for the Twenty20  matches and one-day internationals as part of their building  process for the West Indies next year.

Promising opener Phillip Hughes and paceman Stuart Clark  failed to make either side while batsman Mike Hussey and pace  bowlers Peter Siddle and Nathan Bracken made the one-day side  but not the Twenty20.

“We obviously know what Mike Hussey and Nathan Bracken are  capable of in one-day and Twenty20 cricket, but with limited  opportunities at international level in this format of the game  we wanted to look at different players as we look to improve  our Twenty20 performances,” Hilditch said.

“Their omissions do not mean we won’t look to them for the  World Twenty20.”