Bengaluru, Oct 8: Ending on the losing side after a thriller like the Mohali Test can be devastating but the Australian team appears to have recovered from the heart-break. Bengaluru offers skipper Ricky Ponting a chance to fulfill his longstanding dream of captaining his side to a Test win against India in their backyard.
“Obviously I want to be able to change the captaincy record here. All I can do is give myself and the team the best chance to be able to do that. We really thought last week that we gave ourselves the best chance to [win]. If you saw how dominant we were for certain parts of the game, we gave ourselves a great chance to do that. We are all disappointed that we didn't achieve that result. All we can do is ensure that we are well prepared again, and that our plans are spot on. And when certain situations arise in the game, I [need to] make sure that I am doing the right thing. That's all I can do. Hopefully, by the end of the game, I will tick in one of those boxes as far as a win in India is concerned,” Ponting said about his captaincy record in India.
When asked whether he believed this was his last tour of India as captain Ponting replied like a pro nowhere close to retirement. “I haven't thought [whether] this is going to be my last Test or not. I have always enjoyed playing cricket here, although I haven't had the success here that I have had in other countries. It's always been a great place to play Test cricket as far as I am concerned. The Australian team has always enjoyed every contest we have had here, and we always enjoy our team around the country outside of the cricket venues.”
“Hopefully this is not my last tour - as it turns out we are in India almost every year. I still believe I have got a few more years of international cricket ahead of me and hopefully that means I will be back to India for another Test tour,” he said.
Talking about Australia’s longtime nemesis VVS Laxman, Ponting said that he expected the stylish Hyderabadi to play in the match and admitted that he left awestruck by the sensible batting displayed at Mohali.
“I expected him to play. Look, I guess when you have a batting line-up like India have got, it's hard to talk about everyone. When we always do come to India, the talk is about Sachin [Tendulkar] first and foremost. [Virender] Sehwag [is spoken about] for the year he has had. But believe me, we pay total respect to their batters, and we know how dangerous they can be, and VVS the other day showed how good a player he is. I thought the way he handled the situation batting with the tail was very, very sensible and very, very good. We just have to make sure we have our plans right for him. I am sure things are going to be slightly different from the other day [in Bengaluru]. We had our fields out, trying to get Ishant [Sharma] on strike. So things are going to be different [in the second Test].”
Going on to talk about the Laxman’s back spasm and it’s possible effect on his performance Ponting said, “If he comes into the game, knowing what we had last week, he can't bring in pre-existing injuries and expect to have a runner. I don't see any concerns with him, though. He actually looked pretty good with his movements as far as I am concerned about the last game. I am a bit surprised he hasn't batted today but he is obviously giving himself as much recovery time as possible.”
When asked to comment on the injuries and replacements in the Indian camp, Ponting said, [Gautam] Gambhir has been a very good player for them over the last couple of years. And I thought Ishant, as the game went the other day, once he seemingly got over his injury, his second-innings spell was probably as well as he has bowled against us in quite a while. There is no doubt that [India] will miss [the services of] both. Having said that, they have [Murali] Vijay and [S] Sreesanth coming in, so we pretty much know what to expect there as far as those players are concerned. Few of our guys have played with Vijay in Champions League Twenty20 and we have all played a bit of cricket with Sreesanth. No surprises there.”
The Australian skipper said that his team were all set to square the two-match Test series.
“We are geared up. We are well prepared, as we were for the first Test match. This just goes to show unless you are ready to play cricket very, very well for five days, sometimes you don't achieve the result you are after. As I said after the first Test, I was very proud of the boys and the way they played their cricket. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get over the line, but there were a lot of positives in that game and we have been talking about that over the week. Our training yesterday was good and hopefully we will have a good training session today and we can go out and play a very similar game to what we played last week. And hopefully the result can be different,” he said.
On his bowling line-up, Ponting said, “The guys that played the Test – [Ben] Hilfenhaus, [Doug] Bollinger, [Mitchell] Johnson - didn't do anything yesterday. Nathan Hauritz had a decent bowl yesterday. The quicks will do a little bowling of today, and make sure they are looked after well and make sure their recovery is as good as can be.”
On Bollinger’s fitness he said, “We are going to have a look at Doug today. The physio will assess him when he gets to the ground and see if he can do some bowling. We will wait and see how the session progresses.”
