NEWS

India-Australia-West Indies Tri-Series>
We will give our best against India: Ponting
21st Sept 2006  22.09 IST
By Agencies  


Australian skipper Ricky Thomas Ponting today sought to put India on the backfoot ahead of their crucial tri-series match, saying his team was prepared to play their best cricket to secure a place in the final.

Ponting said Australia will continue with their rotation policy to test some of the young players keeping in mind the upcoming tournaments but there will be no let-up in the intensity.

"We came here to win enough games to make it through to the final. We expect to play good cricket and want to give our best" Ponting said on the eve of the last league match which would decide the team to take on the West Indies in the tri-series final in Kuala Lumpur.

The Australian skipper said Dan Cullen, Michael Clarke , Shane Watson and Nathan Bracken will be sitting out tomorrow.

"It was all pre-decided that they will not play tomorrow. Watson is an outstanding player with the bat and the ball," he said.

Ponting said the idea was to give more exposure to some of the players who had not played.

"We have different players in different positions. Otherwise we don't get to look at the guys. We need to know what the young guys are capable of."

When asked whether Australia would prefer to bat first, Ponting said, "we batted first in every game we won the toss but here we see other teams do the other way. We will now look at the state of the wicket and see the trend of the power play result and then decide. May be it is easy to bat at night time. We will have to see."

"Initially it is tricky to start. It is hard to start because there is a bit of bounce," Ponting said on the wicket.

Asked how the best team in the world had still never won the Champions Trophy, he said, "we are a bit surprised that the Champions Trophy has eluded us. We have a good squad this time."

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In-Depth Coverage: India-Australia-West Indies Tri-Series
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