da 888： Ricky Ponting can’t zero in on why Australia hasfailed to capture the mini World Cup, but he insists his side is suitably prepared to tackle this one
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in New Delhi08-Oct-2006
Ricky Ponting: ‘We’ll have our best XI and maintain that team throughout, injuriespermitting’ © Getty Images
For Ivan Lendl, it was Wimbledon; for Boris Becker and Pete Sampras it wasthe red clay at the French Open; for the current Australian side it’s beenthe Champions Trophy. Ricky Ponting can’t zero in on why Australia hasfailed to capture the mini World Cup, but he insists his side is suitably prepared to tackle this one.Just like Andrew Flintoff yesterday, Ponting summed up the value of thisevent by saying thoughts of the Ashes had, for a while at least, beenput on the backburner. “It’s a very important tournament for us, thesecond biggest that we play as an ODI team,” he said in Delhi. “It’s something that’seluded us in the recent years – we’ve made it to the semi-finals in thelast two Champions Trophies – and we’re hoping for more this time. We’vecome here pretty well prepared and there’s still time before it starts.We’ve got a good record in India while playing one-day cricket over theyears, hopefully that will come through early on.”In the 12 games they’ve played in India since the start of the decade,Australia have won nine and lost only three. The last of those games wasthe finalof the TVS Cup in Kolkata, when a second-string Australian sidetriumphed by 37 runs. This time Ponting will be looking to put out his “best side” from the word go. “We have14 players here and you’d think that when the first game comes around,we’ll have our best XI and maintain that team throughout, injuriespermitting.”Question marks hang over Glenn McGrath’s fitness and he is someone whoPonting would dare not risk ahead of the Ashes campaign.”Glenn came back really well in Malaysia,” Ponting said. “He was never going to come back and be at his absolute beststraight away, but I thought he improved game by game in Kuala Lumpur. In the final game he bowled six oversfor six runs. Then he went back and played club cricket and got about26-28 overs under his belt. We’re going to monitor his progress throughthe course of the Champions Trophy, with an eye on the Ashes, and keep himas ready as possible for that.”Australia kick off their campaign on October 18 against one of thequalifiers, but their next two games are the big ones. On October 21 -which also happens to be the festive day of – they take onEngland at Jaipur before locking horns with India a week later atMohali.Ponting said the England game was a chance to make the earlyrunning ahead of the Ashes. “There’sstill a while before the first Test [at Brisbane on November 23] butcertainly it will be our first chance to play them before the Ashes,” he said. “We’dlike to think we can provide some sort of statement in that game.”The early part of that early message will need to come from the opening batsmen.As the latest NumbersGame column points out, Australia have tried 12 opening pairssince the start of 2005, a figure that places them behind only West Indiesand India in the juggling stakes.”We had a look at [Shane] Watson in KualaLumpur,” Ponting said. “He was prettyimpressive there. [Simon] Katich has done well for close to 18 months or so sincehe’s had the opportunity to open. It’s not an area of concern for us. Welooked at a few things in Kuala Lumpur and thought of a better way of doing it, andhopefully we can get it right during the practice matches here.”