Ricky Ponting satisfied with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746’s World Cup preparations
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has expressed satisfaction over his team’s preparations for the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2011 that is being jointly hosted by India, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747. The first match of the mega event will be
played on 19th February between co-hosts India and Bangladesh.
Speaking at a press conference a few hours before the World Cup’s opening ceremony in Dhaka, he said the Aussies were a well-balanced outfit. He rubbished the notion that the absence of legends such as Glen McGrath, Shane Warne and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918 had left
the team in ruins. He admitted that there were no more legends in the team, but said the players in the team had wonderful one-day international (ODI) records. He said most of his players had featured in more than 50 ODIs and had forged their own identities
and reputations in the ODI format of the game.
Ponting insisted that Australia’s reign had not ended in the One Day format of the game which was shown in the seven-match ODI series against England in Australia last month. “We had a really good series [against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749] just before we left Australia, with
that group of players and the group of players that are here now is the same group of players that have got us to the number one ranking in one-day cricket in the world over the last couple of years. So I’m confident the players that we’ve got are going to
be good enough in these conditions to really make an impact in this World Cup.”
Ponting was defending his team after the reigning champions lost their pre-World Cup warm-up games against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757. He stressed that the Australian contingent had learnt enough from the two warm-up games and the players had got well-needed
practice of playing on the subcontinental wickets.
He pointed out the fact that Australia had an impressive ODI record in the subcontinent and the players were well prepared to give an impressive show in their first game of the tournament against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045.
Australia are facing pressure from the rest of the world because of their recent defeat in the Ashes Series, which saw tourists England retaining the urn and beating the Aussies in Australia after 24-years. This defeat put the reputation of the invincible
Australians at stake and showed that they were no longer the unbeatable team that they once were.
Earlier last year, Australia were overthrown from their rank of number one team in Test cricket by India. Though they have retained the top position in ODI rankings, they have dropped to number five in the Test format, which has triggered speculations that
they will suffer the same fate in the shorter version of the game in the World Cup this year. The previous two World Cups saw Australia as the clear favourites. However, this time the buzz is against the Aussies, which is why the World Cup 2011 is being rated
as a widely open tournament.
Tags: