Australia captain Ricky Ponting has vowed a return to the team’s trademark aggression in the third Test against England starting on Thursday, with the hosts badly needing a win to boost hopes of regaining the Ashes.
Ponting, facing the ignominy of a third Ashes series defeat under his captaincy, felt the inclusion of opener Phil Hughes and number six batsman Steve Smith signalled a change in mentality after a humiliating innings defeat in the second Test.
That loss was Australia’s first innings defeat at home in 18 years, and left the hosts facing the prospect of an Ashes series defeat on home soil for the first time since 1987.
Australia won the previous home Ashes series in a 5-0 whitewash, and while the current team lacks the quality of its recent predecessors, Ponting believes a change of mindset could do much to overcome a deficit of experience and talent.
“If we look through the great success we’ve had in the last few years [it] has been with aggressive-natured players in our batting order,” Ponting said Wednesday. “That’s the way we play our best cricket.
“You’ll see them [Hughes and Smith] having an impact on the game. They were brought up playing aggressive cricket.
“We have a great opportunity here [to win]. Historically England haven’t got a great record here. Hopefully we can exploit that this week.”
Hughes is a stroke-playing opener who was dumped from the Australia line-up after showing susceptibility to short balls in the first two Ashes Tests in England last year. He replaces the injured Simon Katich at the top of the order while Smith replaces the out-of-form Marcus North.
While they are expected to contribute with purposeful batting, so too is Ponting, who has scores of 10, 51 not out, 0 and 9 in his four innings over the first two Tests.
“My input in this series hasn’t been what it needs to be for us to win games,” Ponting said. “Purely and simply I need to stand up and score runs, and we need to play better cricket than we’ve done in the last two Test matches.”
Struggling for form
Australia will decide its bowling line-up on the morning of the game, to see how the Waca pitch evolves. The most grassy of pitches in 40 years of Test cricket here has continued to lighten.
Traditionally the bouncy Waca wicket suits pace bowlers, and an all-pace selection of Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris is possible, although Johnson and Hilfenhaus were dropped after the first Test and recalled despite not having proved themselves in any games in the interim.
Siddle has struggled since taking a hat-trick in the opening innings of the series, and has gone wicketless across England’s subsequent two innings.
Those form struggles could mean the inclusion of local spinner Michael Beer, who was surprisingly called up to the squad despite having taken only 16 first-class wickets in five matches for Western Australia.
As well as batting and bowling, Australia’s fielding must also improve, the team having uncharacteristically dropped 10 catches in the three England innings.
“The training has been of the highest quality and we just want to carry it over to the game,” added Ponting. “We’re priming ourselves to play our best game so far in the series. The group of players we’ve got together and the way we’ve trained it points to it. We want to start the game well and continue for five days.”
England will make one change from the second Test, with Chris Broad out injured. Chris Tremlett, Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad are the candidates to replace him.
Teams:
Australia (from): Ricky Ponting (captain), Phil Hughes, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Steven Smith, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Beer, Peter Siddle.
England (from): Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Matthew Prior, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett, Steve Finn, James Anderson, Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad. — Sapa-AP