Australian captain Ricky Ponting says Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus will come under strong consideration for the Boxing Day Test after South Africa cruised to a six-wicket victory in the first Test at the WACA Ground.
Ponting said Australia’s current bowling line-up lacked punch after the disappointing returns of Peter Siddle, Brett Lee and Jason Krejza in Perth.
“I think we have to look at the conditions we’ve got in Melbourne and Sydney and then decide if we’ve got a better attack there,” Ponting said.
“We’ll be picking the four best bowlers, or it might be the five best bowlers, that we think are going to be good enough to win us the game in Melbourne.
“Hilfenhaus or someone like that who can use a new ball for us, I think he’ll come into calculations.
“Bollinger will definitely come into calculations because he was so impressive with the work he did in India.
“We’ll talk about all those guys. If we think those guys are better than what we’ve got in the current side and will help us win the game in Melbourne then we’ll look at them.
“We have to think about the bowlers we have in the side at the moment and the style of bowlers we’ve got in the side at the moment and with the conditions we are going to be confronted with in Melbourne and Sydney and work out if we think they are the best guys to win us the next two games.
“If they’re not, we are going to have to make some changes.”
Ponting defended out-of-form opener Matthew Hayden, saying the 37-year-old remained as hungry as ever to succeed at Test level.
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