ICC Cricket World Cup 2011
Ricky Ponting said yesterday after the match against Sri Lanka was abandoned , that the list of replacements for Doug Bollinger has finally come down to three. Like earlier the list comprises of Mike Hussey as well as the two Victorian bowlers Dirk Nannes and Peter Siddle.
Bollinger was sent back home last week with an injured ankle. The Australian selectors were buying time to name the replacement to keep all their options open. But Ricky Ponting said yesterday that the replacement would be named in a couple of days.
Ponting said “They (selectors) have been saying all this week that they will wait till the end of this Sri Lankan game and make an announcement then. It’s obviously to give Mike Hussey an opportunity to play a Sheffield Shield game back in Australia. The one-day final is now out of the way in which (Peter) Siddle and Dirk Nannes both played as well. They got a good look at those two plus a good look at Hussey this week. So I am pretty sure that the decision is going to be made in the next couple of days.”
“Whoever we bring I think will add a lot to our squad. Mike Hussey was someone who we always were going to miss. Having a left-hander in the middle order with so much experience he has will be a great benefit to our team. But at the same time our point of difference in the tournament so far has been our fast bowlers. If one of those happens to go down, then we haven’t got a replacement. So they can take a look at it both ways. But whichever way they go, I will be pretty happy.”
He further put in that they would consider promoting David Hussey up the order as the no.6 all rounder has got only one chance so far to bat in the World Cup, against Zimbabwe in which he managed only 14 runs.
Speaking on Australia’s chances and plans for the upcoming matches against Kenya, Canada and Pakistan Ponting said, “We’ve got two of the minnow teams coming up in the next week, so hopefully we can get the results we require out of those games and then we know we’ve got to come back here and play what looks to be a very good Pakistan side.”
On being asked if the abandoning of the yesterdays match against Sri Lanka would affect them Ponting said, “Hopefully we can continue to win a few more games and hopefully not getting two points out of this game won’t affect us.”
On the other hand Sangakkara said that although the match would have been a cracker if it had gone down to the wire yet it was better to have got one point out of the match instead of getting none.
Tags: Australia, Cricket, Dirk Nannes, Doug Bollinger, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Mike Hussey, Peter Siddle, Ricky Ponting, Sri Lanka, World Cup
