(Chris Forster is a cricket fan and BPL Citizen Journalist) 

Ricky Ponting must see out the summer as a member of the Australian cricket side. No ifs or buts about it. 

With Shaun Marsh currently sidelined with an injury, there is no ideal candidate to replace Australia's greatest batsman since Don Bradman. It's easy for people to call for Ponting to be sacked in order to introduce new blood into the side, but the new blood has to warrant being selected. There is no point selecting a player based solely on youth. The player's form has to justify their selection otherwise the baggy green will lose all of the prestige it once carried. 

While Ponting may be struggling for form, there aren't a whole lot of players in the state game that are banging down the door demanding to be selected in the national side. Only New South Wales blaster David Warner and Tasmanian Ed Cowan have shown any real consistency at the crease this season, and neither of them are middle-order batsmen. 

Callum Ferguson, who not so long ago was being groomed as the future of Australian cricket, has struggled for form with South Australia this season, while George Bailey and Steve Smith both failed to impress with the bat for the Australia A side in their recent tour match against New Zealand. 

One suggestion has been to move Shane Watson down the order to limit his work load and bring in a new opening batsman. While this may work in theory, I would advise against it purely on the basis that Watson is an opening batsman and he belongs at the top of the order. He opens the batting in all forms of the game and that is where he is most damaging.

If Watson needs to shoulder less work, then he should not be bowling as many overs as he currently is. It seems to me that whenever Watson is breaking down with back spasms and hamstring injuries, it is when he is in running in to bowl not when he is at the crease with the bat. The solution should be to bowl Watson less, not move him down the batting order. 

One thing Ponting brings to the table that simply can't be replaced is experience.

He has been a mainstay in the Australian side for over a decade and obviously been a highly successful captain. In fact his run as Australian skipper was so successful that he won more Test matches than any other captain in history.

And with Michael Clarke only recently taking over the reins as skipper, having someone with Ponting's experience to call upon in difficult situations will only benefit Clarke's growth. 

It's all well and good to call for Ponting to step down and make way for someone else, but I ask you this: Who has been playing well enough on a consistent level in order to dethrone one of the greatest batsmen of the modern era?