Sydney, Feb.7 : Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has decided to take on extra work to strengthen his lower back.

Keen to participate in the remaining matches of the ongoing Commonwealth Bank tri-series involving Australia, India and Sri Lanka, Ponting said that the back injury has laid him low thrice in the past two years, and it was upto him to strengthen it.

"My back has been better, I must admit. It's just something that I have to get on top of. "I have had a lot of work over the past few days here," Ponting said while declaring himself a certain starter for the coming day-night match against Sri Lanka at the SCG.

"I've got a bit of strength work I could probably do, and little things I could look at doing differently over the next few months. We've been pretty cautious with it over the past few days. I'll be right to get through the rest of this series," smh.co.au quoted him as saying further.

Asked if the injury might require surgery, Ponting said: "I hope it doesn't get to that. I had some cortisone injections in it last year, higher up in my spine. This time it has happened a lot lower.

ANI