As the Aussies eye two extremely important yet extremely different upcoming series, their preparation and their abilities in respect of both are rather different: The upcoming Ashes series they are contemplating with the usual relish hoping to retain the Urn for another year. The T20 World Cup, however they will contemplate with somewhat less assuredness. They are still at the top of the test rankings and nearly at the top in ODIs; they have won the World Cup thrice, but their prowess in the T20 format is more uncertain.

Ricky Ponting will be going on his 4th Ashes tour which but his undoubted batting prowess has not showed its class in T20 matches as much. To be sure he has played only 15 T20 matches in international cricket with a modest aggregate of 376 runs there from. His side is also not one of players experienced in T20 and Ponting is not his usual cocky self when asked to rate his T20 batting skills.

"Batting where I do in the top order of Twenty20 cricket, it can sometimes be a bit difficult. Obviously the earlier you get in the better chance you've got of making a big score but you're expected to play in a certain way. Top-order batsmen are always going to have their ups and downs in that sort of game," he was quoted as saying in the cricket news and admitted that his last couple of games had been “very poor”.  "In the two games in South Africa I made 1 in each. It's not great form going into a World Cup,” he said.

In spite of this however, Ponting was non committal when he was questioned about whether he would be leaving out T20 matches from his cricketing activities, much as Sachin Tendulkar has done. At the age of 34 this is an option that has to have occurred to him, although age is certainly not a limiting factor for the T20 format as at least three other Australians have very ably shown us. Three super-annulated Aussies, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden have certainly belied their years in the recently concluded DLF IPL 2009.

The Aussies should be bolstered by the presence of Shane Watson, who has returned after a groin injury and has shown himself an ideal candidate for the T20 format. In fact it was Watson that the Rajasthan Royals IPL team missed the most and perhaps a reason why last year’s champs failed to make it to the knock out stage this year.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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