Ricky Ponting is breaking an old tradition in Australian cricket - a former skipper still wearing the baggy green.
The usual form is that once a captain stands down, he also moves out of the national side.
However Ponting has now played his last five tests under the new leadership of Michael Clarke. You think he's missing it? Far from it.
"It's a lot of fun not being captain," the 36-year-old said.
"I just want to be the best member of the team I can possibly be by trying to score runs, offer advice to help the young players out along the way, and be another set of eyes and ears for the captain."
In those five tests, Ponting - who stood down as test skipper after England's crushing Ashes series win in Australia last summer - has averaged just 30, way down on his career average of 52 from 157 tests.
His last two innings, 62 in the win over South Africa at Johannesburg a fortnight ago, and 78 against New Zealand in Brisbane last week, have been encouraging and as he prepares for possibly his last test on his home ground at Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Ponting insisted he is relaxed and enjoying himself.
"It's a lot more relaxing for me to be an every-day player, get my batting and fielding work done then sit in the changing rooms and not think about wicket conditions or picking teams. It's a load off my plate."
Ponting stepped down as the most successful captain in test history, with 48 victories from 77 matches in charge.
But he's got no regrets about stepping down from what he calls "one of the best jobs in the world".
"A lot of thought went into making that decision. I've tried to make myself back into the player I wanted to be and by standing down when I did I gave the incoming captain time to get knowledge and experience under his belt for the next really big series we play."
New Zealand are not a "really big series" in Australian minds, and after their performance in the first test at Brisbane can hardly complain at that.
Their nine-wicket win gave Australia the perfect start to the home summer and while New Zealand batted dreadfully at times in both innings, their second innings capitulation, being 17 for four and 28 for five, surprised Ponting.
"I didn't expect it going into the ground for day four. I thought we were going to have a good solid, long day of test cricket.
"The wicket was just starting to play at its best at that stage.
"But New Zealand got caught up in the middle of a very good spell of fast bowling."
Debutant James Pattinson ran through the New Zealand innings, taking five for 27.
"You can't take anything away from the way James bowled, and Peter Siddle at the other end.
"We pride ourselves on partnerships and putting opposition teams under pressure.
"If you do that in test cricket sometimes those spells will come along. We created chances, took most of them and before you knew it they were three or four down in the space of a couple of overs and on the back foot from then on."
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