Ponting is clearly deserving of playing tests if he continues his recent test form, but as soon as that form starts to wane again (if he doesn't retire in the meantime), they pretty much need to do what they've done here, again. A few bad innings in a row and they'll probably need to pull the plug pretty quick-smart and put the next best option in there.
For those that are worried that we won't have anyone ready to just come in and do well immediately, if he goes during, or close to the Ashes, we will hopefully have a couple of decent options by then.
For one, hopefully Shaun Marsh will have his shit together again by then. He showed last year that he was able to come straight in to test cricket and excel immediately (at no.3) and next time around he will have the benefit of his previous experience to help him, as well.
I know he is not well liked around here by many/most, but those who saw him batting in Sri Lanka and Sth Africa know full well how good he is, when he's in form and confident. Anyone that could do as well as he did and feel so confident, against arguably the best bowling attack in the world, on the greentop that saw us at 9 for 21, in the 2nd innings (in Capetown), is going to be able to handle just about anything.
There was an interesting article on him in the paper the other day, where he said he just approached the Indian test series all wrong and went right away from what had worked so well for him in the past 3 years (when he averaged 59 for his last two Sheffield Shield summers and then did so well at the start of his test career). He said he just tried too hard, as he was desperate to impress in his first test series at home and that he simply tried to score too quickly, which is the exact opposite of what he had been doing in his initial tests (when he was averaging 70) and in those last two Shield series (where his strike rate was in the 40's). He had very slow strike rates in all those periods where he was doing really well, but in the Indian series he came out and looked like he was still in T20 mode, (from the 99 he scored in the T20 game on the eve of the tests) and it clearly doesn't work for him. He was playing at all sorts of balls outside off, that he was leaving alone against Sri lanka and Sth Africa and it brought him unstuck.
He then of course lost all confidence, but at least he's already identified where he went wrong, so I imagine he will be more determined than ever to get back into test cricket and show what he's got, having learned from that "rookie mistake". If he stays relatively injury free (which I realise is a big "if") I fully expect he will be back at some stage and do really well. Maybe it will be in England.
Forrest also looks like he'll be ideally suited to test cricket and maybe he could get himself a County cricket contract this winter, to give himself some experience of the conditions.