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Australia captain Ricky Ponting isn’t expecting miracles from his team in the coming two-Test series away to world No.1 India, but will demand a high level of performance from his troops.
The bulk of the squad set off from Sydney on Sunday for a quickfire tour that includes one practice match and two Tests, with a separate component of three one-day internationals.
Australia have dropped to fourth in the Test rankings, below India, South Africa and Sri Lanka and Ponting conceded his team had work to do to regain top spot.
“I don’t expect miracles, but expect a very high level of performance over the next few weeks,” Ponting said at Sydney Airport on Sunday.
“It’s an important tour for all of us.
“I’d like to get the team back to number one again and this will be hopefully just one of those steps along the way.
“If we happen to play the cricket I know we are capable of in India and we can win that series, that will do great things for us to get back up near the number one ranking.”
While Ponting agreed with the likes of Shane Warne that the tour of India wasn’t the perfect preparation for the coming Ashes series, he said the schedule was better than the original one which featured only seven one-day matches.
“There’s been a bit of talk the last few weeks about our preparation into what we’ve got later in the summer and I definitely couldn’t be happier with it, playing Test cricket at this time of year,” Ponting said.
“For us, I think it will be great to be challenged the way that we will be challenged over there, by a very good team and by the conditions.
“I think it will be great for us when November (and the Ashes series) comes around.”
Ponting believed the team heading to India would be better prepared than the side which drew a two-Test series against Pakistan in England a couple of months ago.
The skipper is keen to improve his average of 20.8 in India, where he has scored just one century in 12 Tests.
Uncapped young pacemen Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson were placed on standby for the India tour following an injury to another youngster, Josh Hazlewood and the Champions League tournament commitments of squad members Peter George and Doug Bollinger.
Ponting said two players were placed on standby as both George and Bollinger’s teams could make the final stages of the tournament in South Africa, where the final clashes with the start of Australia’s warm-up game in Mohali.
While some of Australia’s recent tours to the sub-continent have been clouded by security concerns, Ponting said he was happy with the level of security for the trip to India.
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