MELBOURNE: Australia captain Ricky Ponting has declared himself fit to play in the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan starting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground here on Saturday after having overcome an elbow injury.
Ponting suffered the injury on the opening day of the third Test against West Indies in Perth on Dec 16 and has been having intensive treatment since then.
But after a solid net session on Christmas Day at the MCG, Ponting said he was confident of taking on Pakistan.
“I went well today actually, I went better than I did yesterday [Thursday],” he said on Friday.
“I had a bit of pain in the nets yesterday but I was always going to bat two days leading in to the game just so I had a really good gauge on it and how I was going and I’m really confident that I can play the game.
“Hughesy [Phil Hughes] will stay here until the game starts just to wait and see how I wake up in the morning but I’m pretty confident that I’ll be OK.
“At some stage I’ll probably have a little bit of discomfort there in it but it’s not going to be anything that’s going to stop me functioning.”
Australia called up opener Hughes as cover in a 13-man squad.
Fast bowler Peter Siddle looks to have recovered from the hamstring injury which caused him to miss out as Australia sealed a 2-0 series victory against the West Indies.
He is set to take the place of Clint McKay, who took one wicket in his Test debut in the third Test.
Ponting said: “He [McKay] hasn’t left the squad but Siddle has done everything that he needs to have done, playing the game the other day, backing up, and having his bowl this morning and getting through so I’d expect that he’ll play.”
Off-spinner Nathan Hauritz also had a solid session in the nets on Christmas Day after struggling with a groin complaint.
“With Nathan, it’s a bit the same as me actually, he’s a whole lot better today at training than he was yesterday,” said Ponting.
“But as we know with his injury over the last few weeks really, it’s been a day-to-day sort of thing with him. One day he feels great, the next day he doesn’t feel so good so tomorrow morning is going to be the important time for him now as well.”
However, paceman Ben Hilfenhaus is not yet ready to return because of a knee problem and also remains a doubt for the second Test in Sydney, starting on Jan 3.
Pakistan are likely to provide a far more testing assignment for the hosts than the series win over West Indies.
Pakistan have never won a Test series on Australian soil but appear to have a more balanced attack than the hosts, with pacemen Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Sami — the world’s best leg-spinner at present in Danish Kaneria — plus dangerous off-spinner Saeed Ajmal.
They go into the series without senior batsman and former captain Younis Khan — but that might be about to change if current skipper Mohammad Yousuf gets his way.
“I called Younis because we have always been good friends and we have played a lot of cricket together,” Yousuf said. “He has been to Australia before and scored lot of runs here, so I want to see him in the team.”
Younis is available for selection again after missing the tour of New Zealand due to his desire to take a break from international cricket.
The conditions at the MCG will suit Australian pacers more than the Pakistani bowlers as Pakistani pace bowlers rely more on seam and swing.
If the pitch didn’t offered any sideways movement then Mohammad Asif will be neutralized. Pakistan must play Umar Gul as the conditions will suit him better than any other bowler in their line-up.
Meanwhile, MCG curator Cameron Hodgkins has said that he is hopeful about striking the right balance between bat and ball for the first Test.
Hodgkins predicted that the pitch would not be too batsman-friendly, which has been the nature in matches at the MCG so far this season.
The curator said that he would prefer to prepare a similar wicket to the one from last year’s Test between Australia and South Africa, where the batsmen from both sides scored well, but they also had to combat some reverse swing.
“So far there’s been good pace and carry and the good bowlers are getting wickets. In the last game there was plenty of grass, but the only ingredient missing was there wasn’t much nibble,” Hodgkins was quoted as saying in the local media.
Teams (from):
AUSTRALIA
Shane Watson, Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Marcus North, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Doug Bollinger, Phillip Hughes, Clint McKay.
PAKISTAN
Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Faisal Iqbal, Mohammad Yousuf (captain), Umar Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Aamir, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Asif, Saeed Ajmal, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Malik, Abdur Rauf.
Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Rudi Koertzen (South Africa).
TV umpire: Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka).
No comments:
Post a Comment