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Australia keeping opponent in mind while picking their playing XI

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ANI Cricket

Australia assistant coach Ricky Ponting revealed his side's game plan as he said that they are analysing their opponents deeply and picking their players accordingly.

"We've been looking really deeply into specific match-ups with opposition teams and specific players. What we've done with opposition players and what we've done so far pretty much in every game has come off for us," Cricket.com.au quoted Ponting as saying.

During their match against England, Australia brought in Jason Behrendorff for the match and he justified his inclusion as he sent five England batsmen back to the pavilion.

"We knew looking at the numbers of the English batsmen, especially in their top order, that they are a bit susceptible to left-arm fast bowling, hence Behrendorff coming into the side. We have a mathematical system ... that stacks up the batsmen's numbers against our bowlers. It was quite obvious coming into this one that a lot of their batsmen's numbers were quite low against left-arm fast bowling," he said.

 

Behrendroff along with Mitchell Starc picked nine wickets during the match and restricted England on just 221 runs to register a 64-run victory.

Starc took four wickets including three crucial ones of Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, and Ben Stokes.

Ponting hailed Starc and when he was asked if Starc is the best white-ball bowler in the world, Ponting replied: "If he's not, I'd like to know who is."

Ponting also called Starc a 'valuable asset'.

"Two wickets with the brand-new ball, swinging it back into the right-hander and then to swing it back in with the good ball to get Ben Stokes late when he's set on 89 and knock his off-stump out of the ground. We know what a valuable asset we've got there with Starcy and we're continually trying to find the best way to use him in this 50-over format," he said.

Australia will now face New Zealand on June 29.

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First Published: Jun 26 2019 | 9:40 PM IST

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