What was he thinking?' Ponting plans to get under Uzi's grill
London: Under pressure No.3 Usman Khawaja faces a batting debrief from Ricky Ponting as Australia prepares for a World Cup blockbuster against India tonight.
The Australians head into this blue-chip clash unbeaten and hoping to make a statement, having taken care of Afghanistan and the West Indies, while India, one of the tournament favourites, opened their campaign with a six-wicket win over South Africa.
There were issues for the Australians in their 15-run win over the West Indies, namely how the top order struggled to deal with the short-pitched attack. They have put that down to a learning experience but batting coach Ponting, one of the greats of the game who handled the bumper better than most, has had a series of chats with all batsmen.
Khawaja was felled in a recent warm-up match by West Indies quick Andre Russell, and his dismissal on Thursday – caught behind trying to give himself room to slash an angled delivery after being worked over with the short ball – prompted Ponting to wonder what the left-hander’s mindset had been.
"We'll be talking about that. That's a big part of my role now – I'm not going to teach him how to play a cover drive or a pull shot, I need to know what's going through his mind in moments like that, what leads to that thinking about playing a shot like that," he said.
What was he thinking? Was he expecting another short ball? Was he going to try to help it over backward point? What was he thinking? I'll get to the bottom of it.
Ricky Ponting on Usman Khawaja
"If I can help in some way just to get him through a situation like that and give him something else or something different to think about. I think that's a huge part of coaching. We had a good team chat up [the game] where the guys have opened up a lot about what happened in the game. Individually, I will catch up with all the batsmen as well before we head into the India game," he said.
Khawaja has struggled to have an impact at No.3 in his two innings since returning to that role and will come under pressure from Shaun Marsh should his troubles continue. He made only 15 against Afghanistan and 13 against the West Indies, the latter going after him with repeated bumpers.
That's unlikely to be the case against India, for their blue-print is not built solely on fast bowling, but they are still likely to test Khawaja with short-pitched deliveries if he plays.
"I thought he's looked really good. He started his innings really well [against the West Indies], he punched one down the ground for four early on. He got hit in the head," Ponting said.
"I'm more concerned to what led to him playing that shot. What was he thinking? Was he expecting another short ball? Was he going to try to help it over backward point? What was he thinking? I'll get to the bottom of it."
Khawaja is the leading one-day international run-scorer this year but that came as an opener in David Warner's absence. He averages more than 50 and has a strike rate of more than 85 as an opener but, in 12 innings at No.3, this plummets to an average of only 22.45 and a strike rate of 71.8. Marsh could slot into No.3 without impacting the line-up around him.
Sunday's contest provides intriguing match-ups, for Pat Cummins, in excellent form, will look to topple Kohli – the world's No.1 batsman – for the sixth time in their careers.
Unorthodox Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, with his high arm lift and natural curve into right-handed batsmen, and fellow pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will hope for more success against Aaron Finch.
The Australian skipper has had a largely miserable time against India over the past six months. At home last summer, he managed only 55 runs at 18 in the three-match Twenty20 series, had his Test career terminated by Sydney with only 97 runs at 16.16, and then managed only 26 runs at 8.66 in three one-day international innings.
The tourists exposed Finch's weakness to the full-pitched delivery but he began to rediscover his touch with a 93 in Ranchi in the recent one-day series in India.
"As a batsman, you always have in the back of your mind about a one-on-one match-up that might pop up at some stage during the game," Ponting said.
"I'm sure Pat will be looking forward to bowling to Virat and I’m sure Bumrah will be looking forward to bowling to Finchy. It's just the way it is. Even opposition teams tend to have that feeling.
"As an individual player, just going back to a venue that you've had success at can be big for you or going to a venue where you haven't can be the opposite of that as well. What's happened in the past does play a small percentage going towards the next contest but it's not the be all and end all. Sometimes things can do differently to what you plan for as well."