Belfast (Ireland), Aug 27 (IANS): With Australia aiming to recover from a disastrous Ashes series, new captain Steven Smith is looking forward to gaining valuable counsel from former skipper Ricky Ponting on how to lead the team during the transition period.

Smith took over the reins of the One-Day International (ODI) team for the first time in a one-off match against Ireland here on Thursday. He will take charge of the Test team when they play a series in Bangladesh in October.

With the retirements of former skipper Michael Clarke and opening batsman Chris Rogers, the Australian team will now feature a different batting line-up. But Smith will be expected to play a crucial role in both ODI's and Tests.

"I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to get him (Ponting) on the phone and talk about a few things with him and just continue to try and learn," Smith was quoted as saying by Skysports on Thursday.

"I was lucky enough to play under him as a player. He's certainly a little bit different to Michael (Clarke) in a few ways that he's run things, both good and bad, each of them to their own style," the 26-year-old added.

Smith batted at number three in the recent 2-3 Ashes series defeat against England, book-ending a string of failures with a pair of centuries in the second and fifth Tests.

He will bat at the same position in the ODI team, but is undecided about where he should bat in Tests, despite most pundits urging him to stick to the slot that Ponting owned for most of his career.

"Hopefully first and foremost I can keep making runs, that are pretty important to me. To make sure I'm leading from the front," Smith said.