‘Facing spinners will be a challenge’

By Our Correspondent

Hyderabad

Oct. 5: The Australians may have been the second best side on each day of the four-day warm up match against Board President’s XI but captain Ricky Ponting feels spending time on the field and getting match practice ahead of the Test series has been vital.

"We spent a good amount of time in the field; we got two solid hit outs and few of our batsmen have spent good quality time. It will be very beneficial for us. There was not much on offer for any one. Just four days, being at the ground, under the sun and getting some cricket will be good," he said after the match. Excerpts:

On pressure: There is pressure on all of us. Take out our spinners, our fast bowlers. It’s important in this series that our batters make big scores. So the pressure is on every single one of us. We like putting ourselves under pressure, pitting our skills against every other player in the world. I am very happy what we have got out from this game.

On facing Harbhajan, Kumble in Tests: They are two world-class performers. Kumble in particular has been around for a long time. He is a very smart bowler and has a great record in India. That is the challenge that lies ahead of us. We know what they are, we know who they are because we have played so much against these guys. It’s about us working a strategy and a style of play as batsmen to combat what they are doing.

On his form: I have batted OK in this game. I have been working very hard since we arrived here. I have worked hard on some things in Jaipur. I am back from a injury and it’s always a little hard to get going.

To spend some quality time in both innings has been good. I was sort of disappointed to get out in the first innings I could have got a bit more time under my belt.

On scoring in Tests in India: I haven’t done that in the past. I probably owe a few runs to my team here in India.

As everybody knows it’s been spoken a lot here already. My record in India is not as good as it is in other parts of the world.

That’s where this game was very important for me... to get some confidence. I played against a couple of reasonably good spinners and it was nice to spend some time out there.

On his batsmen falling to spin here: When they are bowling 75 per cent of their overs with spin, the chances are that you are going to lose wickets to them at some stage. That’s the way the Indians play their cricket — the spinners do bowl lots of overs. I don’t think it (losing wickets to spin) was disappointing for us. It was a good opportunity in the first innings to spend some good time against couple of good spin bowlers, start to get a feel of the conditions, and work our own game plans.

On his openers failing: I don’t think that is a worry. Matthew (Hayden) has a great Test and ODI record here. Simon Katich, over the last 12 or 18 months be it domestic or Test cricket, has probably made as many runs as anybody in the world. So I am sure those two guys deep down feel they have missed an opportunity to spend some time in the middle. That’s how the game of cricket goes. Not everyone can gets runs every game. Those guys missed out here but I am very confident they will do the job for us on Thursday.

On off-spinner Jason Krejza: Jason was very nervous during the first spell of the game. I think he improved by the end of his spell in the first innings. He got into good rhythm and used the angles round the wicket very well. Today they were lots more aggressive with the thought of declaring at some point of time.

It’s a learning curve for him. He is a young spinner, no doubt about it. He has got the skills and talent and he has to work out for himself and we need to work out in the short time how to use him the best way. The field placements and the way the Indians tend to play him, he has not had much exposure to that. That’s where we need to point areas in his game.

On Cameron White: He offers a lot since he is allrounder; he is some one who can get a game in our side as a batsman alone. He just toured here with Australia A and did well in the one dayers. He is learning his craft all the time. The fact that Bryce McGain went down is a major setback for us. We have Krejza and White, two inexperienced guys who will continue to learn through this tour. Hopefully one of those or both of those two guys can put their hands up at some stage and help us win a Test game.

On Mitchell Johnson: I think he was the pick of our fast bowlers. In both innings his line and length has been terrific. He has tested the batsmen; whether they were right or left handed and bowled long spells. That was part of the game for us to get our bowlers lots of overs. Mitchell is a very fit bloke, he will keep running in to bowl as long as you want him to. It was pleasing to see him be able to adapt and adjust to these conditions as quickly as he has.

On his pace bowlers: The last time we came here we put a lot of pressure on our fast bowlers to execute a certain style of play. There is no doubt that they are the more experienced bowlers in our side at the moment and we expect them to lead from front and take pressure off from our series. Brett Lee is probably a little bit underdone. He got lots of overs here and improved. Stuart Clark is very reliable. And we got Shane Watson who will come in the side and that will give us some good quality medium pace.