By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
Mumbai : Calling Twenty20 an “enjoyable format” of cricket, Australia captain Ricky Ponting said here Friday that it is a challenge to play world champions India in the one-off game here slated for Saturday.
It will be the first Twenty20 International to be played in India, at the Brabourne Stadium here.
“Playing the world champions in this format is enough of an inspiration,” Ponting said at his team’s practice session.
“I hope it will be an interesting game tomorrow, an exciting game. And we want to put up a good show and execute our skills well,” said the man who led Australia to a 4-2 win over India in the just concluded seven-match One-Day International (ODI) series.
Ponting was also captain of the team that won the Champions Trophy last year, winning the final at this venue. But he said that was 11 months ago, and was irrelevant in the present context.
The Australia captain also tried to play down the revenge theme for the match as India had beaten his team in the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa last month to win the title.
“There is nothing about trying to get even; we are looking forward to playing against the Indian team that won this format of the World Championship a few weeks ago,” said Ponting, adding that people seemed more excited about Twenty20 than the ODI series.