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[aryan]

AHMEDABAD: Favourites or not, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is pretty bullish when it comes to talking about the defending champions' chances in this World Cup.

"We are not to here to defend anything, but to win it again. We want to win the World Cup again," said Ponting during a media briefing at the Motera on the eve of their World Cup opener against Zimbabwe. And like India, the skipper also wants Australia to make a good start to the tournament.

"India scored 370 and their batsmen did really well in the opening phase of the match. But then Bangladesh came back and scored 283. But India won and have started the tournament well, and we also have to go and start the tournament well against Zimbabwe," he added.

Ponting, however, felt that the spinners and dew could play a major part in this tournament.

"As we have seen in the tournament so far, the wickets have spun quite a bit, and there is no doubt that as the tournament goes on, the spinners will have a major role to play," said the Aussie skipper and added that "In different venues dew is also going to play a big part in this tournament as well. So that quite negates the role of the spinners. You will probably see teams chasing totals here when they know it's going to get wet during the night. That's when chasing gets a bit easier in this part of the world."
Though Brett Lee & Co are the bowling spearheads, Jason Krejza could be the man who will give the right balance to the Aussie attack.

"Jason Krejza performed pretty well in the second (warm-up) game against South Africa. So in Jason we know we have a very highly skilled off-spinner who is also one of our wicket-taking options," said Ponting, who will create an Australian record of most appearances in World Cup matches overtaking former teammate Glenn McGrath in the process. Both Ponting and McGrath are tied on 39 appearances till date.

Ponting said he was unaware of this upcoming landmark.

"I did not know about it. These are nice things to look back upon. But I'm excited to be playing cricket again after 5-6 weeks on the sidelines. The real test starts now. Let's see how far we can go from here," said the Tasmanian.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe team captain Elton Chigumbara said that his team has to be at its best to compete well against the three-time defending champions.

"We have trained over the last four to five weeks. We need to play our best cricket. Everyone needs to play the role (assigned to him). Everyone is confident," the Zimbabwe skipper said.

Coach Alan Butcher said his team's strategy would be to try and take the Australian batsmen by surprise.

"There's a big chance of a spinner opening the bowling," he said.

Ponting also supported ICC's 10-team plan for the World Cup. "I have always been unsure if the World Cup or the Champions Trophy is the right place to be bringing in these teams. I am not sure how much they learn, getting hammered the way they do. At the end of the day, the World Cup will probably be a better tournament if there are fewer teams."