When play ended on the third day, Australia were cruising along at 322 for three in their first innings, with Ponting unbeaten on 79 and Michael Clarke not out 37.
Irfan Pathan was handed the job of opening the batting with Virender Sehwag after Wasim Jaffer was left out.
Chris Rogers will replace the injured Matthew Hayden, while Shaun Tait replaces spinner Brad Hogg for the third Test against India.
Hayden is nursing a hamstring injury he sustained in the second Test and Rogers has been brought in to the squad in case he does not recover in time for the first day's play on Jan 16.
India made one change with paceman Zaheer Khan ruled out because of an injured heel and was replaced by Ishant Sharma.
While ODI captain Aaron Finch said the team backed Justin Langer "100%", reports of players being put off by the coach's "grumpy" temperament have continued to surface.
Matthew Hayden completed 8,000 runs in 92 Tests -- 8003 runs at an average of 53.00. He is the fifth Australian player and the 18th in Test annals to have amassed 8000 or more runs.
Anil Kumble bagged five wickets and Mathew Hayden scored a century as Australia ended the opening day of the Melbourne Test on 337 for 9.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test against India.
Ajinkya Rahane will not be bogged down by the pressure of captaincy if he leads India in the last three Tests against Australia in Virat Kohli's absence, said batting great Sunil Gavaskar.
Virender Sehwag replaced Yousuf Pathan in the Indian side for the one-off Twenty20 international, while Murali Kartik came in for all-rounder Joginder Sharma.
The world champions, having already sealed the series 4-1, fielded an unchanged side after opener Matthew Hayden failed to recover fully from his hip injury.
Hayden said the Australians had initially been motivated by their shock loss to England in 2005.
England's secret plans purporting to detail Australia's batting weaknesses found their way into opposition hands.
After Hayden, Gambhir is perched at the second spot by accumulating 227 runs at 37.83 in the batsmen's list.
Brett Lee claimed the first hat-trick as Australia thrashed Bangladesh by nine wickets in a Super Eight game of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Australia opening batsman Matthew Hayden is doubtful for Thursday's opening Test against West Indies due to an Achilles injury, captain Ricky Ponting said on Tuesday.
Australia opening batsman Matthew Hayden is doubtful for Thursday's opening Test against West Indies due to an Achilles injury, captain Ricky Ponting said on Tuesday. Ponting said that if Hayden fails to recover left-hander Simon Katich would open with Phil Jaques and Brad Hodge would come into the side at number five.
Having all but completed their one-year ban (set to end on March 28) from international cricket on ball tampering charges, Smith and Warner's IPL performance is expected to be closely monitored by Cricket Australia.
Australia named an unchanged squad on Monday for the second and final Test against New Zealand in Adelaide which starts on Friday.
India made one change, bringing in leg-spinner Piyush Chawla in place of Munaf Patel for the first of the best of three finals.
Rahul Dravid said his country's World Cup demolition by Australia was a thing of the past.
Australian spin great Shane Warne on Monday picked his fierce rival Sachin Tendulkar as the batsman to bat in any conditions and called his former skipper Steve Waugh a match saver rather than a match-winner.
Vice-captain Adam Gilchrist also expressed relief at the Australian government's decision to call off the team's tour of ZImbabwe.
In an outburst that might lead to a bitter war of words, Australian opener Matthew Hayden on Saturday lashed out at the Indian team for adopting "defensive tactics" to slow down the host side's scoring rate on the third day of the fourth and final cricket Test in Adelaide.
The Australia opener challenged India to prove their claims of superiority in the fourth and final Test at Adelaide.
Opener Matthew Hayden has been recalled to Australia's squad for next week's fourth and final Test against India after recovering from injury.
India recalled Virender Sehwag for Yuvraj Singh and dropped spinner Harbhajan Singh for paceman Irfan Pathan.
Australia will go flat out for a win in the second cricket Test on Sunday, according to centurion Matthew Hayden.
Matthew Hayden's 29th Test ton took Australia to 282 for four at stumps on day four of the second Test against India.
The India captain said his five-wicket haul on the opening day of the first Test against Australia is the best of his career.
The Kiwis scored a thrilling one-wicket win in the third and final one-day match of the Chappell-Hadlee series.
Australia's Phil Jaques will replace the retired Justin Langer in the first Test against Sri Lanka.
'This England side has a bit of spunk, they enjoy playing their cricket, they are good mates like we are,' said the Australian opener.\n
Matthew Hayden said he loves beating India in India and silencing the packed stadiums.
India brought back S Sreesanth for left-armer Rudra Pratap Singh, while Australia included Brad Haddin for Matthew Hayden in the sixth ODI in Nagpur.
Matthew Hayden is doubtful for the sixth ODI against India after injuring his hip in the last match in Baroda.
Matthew Hayden made 153 and Andrew Symonds was unbeaten on 154 as Australia led England by 213 runs after the second day of the fourth Test.
Opener Matthew Hayden on Thursday said he will consider his Test future over the next couple of months as he does not want to make a hasty decision, especially when he was not in right frame of mind.
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