Injured Ponting’s thumbs up

But the good news for ‘Punter’ is that his thumb (injured during the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal against England) is on the mend and he will test it out at his first nets session in four weeks on Sunday at Nagpur. Though ruled out for the third Test starting October 26, he says the excitement has just begun.‘‘I would like to utilise the time before that to be with my teammates and do some practice to be match-fit.”

Yet the disappointment of having ‘‘missed out’’ was the theme of his first interaction with the Indian media soon after his arrival on Saturday. ‘‘I had a pretty ordinary series in 2001 and was hoping to set it right this time around. Unfortunately, I have just one Test or rather two innings to do that. Hopefully, I can do that in Mumbai.’’

Stand-in skipper Adam Gilchrist also came in for some praise from his regular captain. ‘‘Adam has done a wonderful job and being 1-0 up is a great achievement. He has executed the plans very well and am happy about the way the series is heading.’’

In the same vein Ponting also reiterated what Gilchrist and coach John Buchanan have said at various point of time on the tour of the change in approach on the current tour. ‘‘We played tough and disciplined cricket in Sri Lanka before this tour and we would like to continue it here as well. You would have probably seen that in the way we have batted, bowled or even in our field placings, we are far more patient.”

Though there is one thing he confirmed that will not change. That is, the Aussie plan to play three quickies and just Shane Warne. ‘‘I think it is a question of balance. Our pace bowlers have bowled very well. Also we do not have a top-order batsman bowling seam-up so we do not have the option of playing an extra spinner. Moreover, the ball has reverse-swung a lot and three pacemen and a spinner is the best combination,’’ he added.