Aussies have the bowlers to take Indian wickets, says Ponting
Skipper Ricky Ponting is certain the Australian bowling attack still
pack a punch in the post-Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath era and will
prove it against India in the Boxing Day Test.
Pace spearhead Brett Lee shoulders a heavy responsibility leading an
inexperienced bowling attack at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but
Ponting said there is more variety in the current crop.
This will be the first major examination for Australia's bowlers
since the retirement earlier this year of leg-spinner Warne (708
wickets) and paceman McGrath (563), who are in Test cricket's all-time
top four.
Ponting and selectors want more time to analyse a MCG wicket, which
has had its preparation hampered by rain over the past week.
With conditions likely to favour fast bowling on the first morning,
Australia must decide between using a four-prong pace attack for the
first time in almost 16 years, or going in with wrist-spinner Brad Hogg
and three quicks.
Left-armer Mitchell Johnson and tearaway Shaun Tait will battle for
the third pace spot if Hogg plays.
Regardless of which attack Australia get as they chase a 15th
successive Test victory, Ponting said he was confident it would be more
dangerous and boast more variety than the ones which struggled to bowl
India out in the corresponding home series four years ago, when McGrath
was injured and Warne was suspended.
Ponting said spearhead Brett Lee was in career-best form, after a
man-of-the-series performance against Sri Lanka last month, Stuart
Clark's record was among the best in the world and Johnson had been
impressive.
"I'm very confident in the attack that we've got, that it's going to
be good enough to take 20 wickets in every Test we play this summer, so
I couldn't ask for anything more," Ponting told a match-eve press
conference on Tuesday.
Ponting said even with McGrath and Warne and their combined 1271
wickets now gone, Australia had the bowlers to trouble India's star
batsmen.
"(Lee) is a wicket-taking bowler (but) for different reasons (than)
Shane was," he said. "That's what Tait is as well.
MELBOURNE, Dec 25, 2007 (AFP)
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