England hope to burn Aussie hopes

Ponting in the limelight as hosts look to continue.

PERTH: Australia will delay a final decision on their team for the third Ashes Test against England, starting today at the WACA Ground, until the last moment.

Captain Ricky Ponting admitted he was unsure of his best line-up before the match, in which an England win will mean the tourists retain the Ashes. England arrived in Perth on Monday 1-0 up in the five-match series saying they knew their best eleven, but Australia are wavering and are considering playing an all-pace bowling attack on what is tipped to be a lively pitch.

The last time Australia went into a Test without a specialist spinner was at the WACA in 2008, when they lost to India by 72 runs. Little-known left-arm spinner Michael Beer was picked for the third Test squad and looked likely to make his debut, but Ponting seemed to be having doubts at his pre-match press conference.

“We haven’t got a team yet, we’ve had a good look at the pitch this afternoon,” said Ponting. “It’s changed a little bit since we’ve been here today so we just want to have a closer look at it again tomorrow before we finalise what our 11 will be.”

Ben Hilfenhaus and Ryan Harris had been expected to lead the Australian attack with either a struggling Mitchell Johnson or first Test hat-trick hero Peter Siddle as the third seamer and Beer lining up as specialist spinner.

Failure not an option for the captain

Ponting admitted his future is uncertain as he tries to avoid an unwanted piece of Ashes leadership history. With a buoyant England up 1-0 heading into the third Test, Ponting is in line to become the first Australian captain in 120 years to lose three Ashes series.

Ponting’s wavering form with the bat – he is without a century in his last eight Tests and has managed just 461 runs at 35.46 in that time – is doing little to ease the pressure on the Tasmanian 35-year-old. The number three said he needed to do more if his side was to turn around their poor start to the series, conceding that an Ashes defeat could end his reign as captain.

“Probably not a decision for me to make, is it,” said Ponting. “I don’t pick myself as captain so... the decision’s completely out of my hands. At the end of the day, I’ll do my best to make sure we’re on a winning end this week and I’ll do my best as a player to make sure I score runs and lead the team the best way possible. Then the powers-that-be will make those decisions I guess at the end of the series, or after this Test match.”

Huge pressure on Ponting: Waugh

His predecessor as the team’s captain, Steve Waugh, said the pressure on Ponting would be huge if Australia lost the Ashes again.

“Realistically, there is going to be a lot of pressure,” said Waugh. “He’ll be thinking he can turn this around but questions will be asked for sure if we lose this series.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2010.