Ponting eager to make amends for the previous 12 months – Cricket News Update
Australian veteran batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RT-Ponting-c2377, says that he is pretty confident regarding his own form and is eager to put his low moments of the past 12 months behind him when he takes the field against South Africa in the upcoming home summer.
Ponting's career had stalled following some embarrassing lows during his last days as captain which saw the team being beaten convincingly by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 in the last Ashes series. A failure to defend the World Cup crown followed, forcing him to step down from his leading role and focus on his own form.
However, that did not do him any favours as he found himself in a puzzling batting slump, where talks of retirement seemed realistic. In 10 matches before the Indian series last summer, Punter averaged a mediocre 22.55, including a highest of 78.
The likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Phillip-Hughes-c2185 emerged during that period but the veteran batsman soon got back to his best against the touring Men in Blue, scoring two hundreds, along with three half-centuries.
That allowed him to remain in contention, and time out of the limited-overs side further allowed him to work on his technical flaw, which circled around his tendency to shuffle across the stumps. That extended break gave him that opportunity and he ultimately got back into the groove in the ongoing domestic season where he has so far managed 355 runs at an impressive average of 118.33.
Recalling the low times of the past 12 months, and especially the short tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 where the team was bundled out for 40-odd in the first Test, Ponting feels content with where his game is at the moment after putting extra hours in training.
"I'm doing things a little bit differently at training now, with the way that I train and prepare. Some of the drills that I'm working on have made me feel a lot better balanced at the crease and certainly not getting hit on the pad as much as I was 12 months ago. I was actually moving too early and locking off and not being able to move again after that."
"Pretty much from the end of that series in South Africa until now I've been a pretty consistent run scorer in all the games I've played. Some of the things I'm working on are starting to pay dividends."
Tags: