BANGALORE, (Reuters) – Captain Ricky Ponting will have woken up today under no illusions that his Australian side’s perennial problems on the sub continent have gone away with the World Cup just three days away.
Ponting’s men struggled with both bat and ball on spinning pitches in their two warm-up matches as they were comprehensively thrashed by India on Sunday and again by South Africa yesterday in Bangalore.
The current Australian line-up so far bears little resemblance to the all-conquering outfit that totally dominated the tournament in 1999, 2003 and 2007 with giants of the game like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath now watching from the stands.
Their build-up to the showpiece, which begins on Saturday, has been marred by unpredictable form and injuries even though they arrived in the sub-continent after walloping England 6-1 in the post-Ashes one-day series on home soil.
The matches against joint hosts India and South Africa, however, have dispelled any hopes they had that the sheer pace of their opening attack would simply blow away their opposition.
It is not a new experience for Australia who have traditionally grappled with sub continental conditions that generally favour slower bowlers.
BATTLING COLLAPSED
In the two warm-up matches against India and South Africa — who are two of the favourites to snatch the title away from Australia — their batting collapsed to some disciplined spin bowling with the middle order folding on both occasions.
Their two spinners Jason Krejza and Steven Smith proved ineffective as they were smashed around the field by the South Africans, conceding 66 runs between them in 14 overs, and failed to pick up a single scalp on the spin-friendly wicket.
Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke played down the seven-wicket defeat by South Africa as simply a practice match defeat but he acknowledged that spinners will be vital over the next seven weeks.
“I think spin bowling is going to play a big part in this tournament. Firstly how you bowl it and then how you face it as well,” Clarke said at a news conference after the match.
“I don’t think either are worries (for the Australian team) to be honest.”
So far, the facts do not back him up.
WARM-UP WOES
Australia have been bowled out twice for scores of 176 and 217 on the same ground — the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore — with opposing spinners picking up 13 wickets.
More telling was that on both occasions, their entire middle order folded meekly to bowlers who are little better than average.
In the absence of the dependable Michael Hussey, who missed the tournament due to an injury, the middle order relies solely on Clarke, trying to shrug off a slump in form, and Ponting, who is recovering from a finger injury.
Their spin attack looks even weaker. It is led by Krejza, who has only played one one-day international, and is backed up by 21-year-old Smith and part timers David Hussey and Clarke.
Krejza’s figures for the two matches read 20-0-102-1, while the other spinners took two wickets in the two matches.
“We know that as the tournament goes on, we could get wickets like this. We will have to find a way to do well,” Ponting said after his team’s 38-run loss to India.
Australia play two matches in the tournament on this same ground, but both are against the unfancied Kenyan and Canadian teams in Group A.
If Ponting’s winning streak as captain in the World Cup is to continue — he steered Australia to wins in 2003 and 2007 — he will have to first fend off New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the group, before potentially getting another crack at India and South Africa later.