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Aussies' time to win Champions Trophy: Ponting
Australia have yet to win the ICC Trophy but skipper Ponting believes this may be their year.
Australia have yet to win the ICC Champions Trophy but skipper Ricky Ponting believes this may be their year.
Australia have won three World Cups but have been knocked out of the Champions Trophy in the last two semi-finals.
"I'm confident we've got a talented and confident squad going into this competition who really want to win it," Ponting said at the airport here today prior to the team's departure for India.
"We've tended to have good success in one day cricket in India over the years and we know the kind of conditions to expect so we're not thinking about obstacles, we're concentrating on executing our plans each match."
Ponting is expecting tough competition for the title from South Africa and from the sub-continent sides.
"Sri Lanka will be competitive in India and you can't discount the home team on home soil. Pakistan also have a good one day side," he said.
The Australians, nominal favourites for a hat-trick of World Cup victores in the Caribbean next March and April, have prepared for the Champions Trophy by winning a tri-series against the West Indies and India in Malaysia last month.
Ponting's team tuned up for the world's second biggest one-day tournamen with a crushing 127-run victory over the West Indies in the final of the DLF Cup in Kuala Lumpur on September 25.
