Australia's Ricky Ponting insists fatigue will not be a problem for his side during the Champions Trophy following the rigours of a four-month tour of England.

Ponting's side arrived in England back in May and embarked on a punishing schedule that has seen them compete in the World Twenty20 tournament, the five-Test Ashes series before finishing with the protracted seven-match one-day international series.

But the Aussie captain said: "There will be no excuses in our team as to why their skills aren't up to shape."

Australia showed little signs of wear and tear during that series as they narrowly missed out on claiming a record-breaking series whitewash after falling to a four-wicket defeat to England in the final game at Chester-le-Street on Sunday.

The reigning world champions were also able to rest a number of their key performers during the series, most notably Ponting himself who returned Down Under for two weeks after the Ashes to rest.

Australia, however, face just a four-day turnaround between arriving in South Africa on Tuesday morning and their first match of the Champions Trophy against West Indies in Johannesburg on Saturday.

And while Ponting agrees the international cricket calendar is becoming increasingly more hectic, he does not believe tiredness will be a factor for his side ahead of the brief two-week format of the Champions Trophy.

"We have been (concerned about the schedule) for a while," said Ponting, who earlier this month retired from international Twenty20 cricket to allow himself extra scope for rest. "Players and players' associations have stressed how difficult it's becoming for international players to play at their best for four or five months at a time.

"There's a few players that have played the majority of those games through the past four or five months (of the England tour) so it's been tough on them.

"But we haven't got a lot of games in the Champions Trophy so we needed to have a certain number of games in our players before then. We know we've got a couple of weeks' break after the Champions Trophy, so let's hope we go there and peak at the right time and play as well as we have during this tournament."