Ponting keen to improve average in India

Ricky Ponting has departed for India with a personal goal alongside his main aim of retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy: he is desperate to improve his average of 12.28 in India. Ponting said it was a void in his cricket resume and he was keen to rectify it in the coming weeks after Australia arrive in the country on Monday.

"I've had a couple of disappointing Test series [in India]. In 2001, I made next to no runs," Ponting said before the team's departure from Sydney. "The last series over there that we won, I broke my thumb and missed the first three Tests and came back for the last one, and that was the only one we lost."

Ponting's average in India is his lowest in any country; his aggregate of 17 runs in the three Tests in 2000-01 is his worst in any Test series. He will be attempting to fix his problem against an experienced India outfit.

Australia, on the other hand, have lost Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, Justin Langer, Darren Lehmann, Michael Kasprowicz and Jason Gillespie from the previous tour to India in 2004. However, Ponting said taking a fresher squad might be a benefit.

"I think we made too much of the conditions in India a lot of the times before we get there," he said. "I think, quite often, the less that you talk about it and the more you get to understand it, the people and the conditions, the better off you are over there."

With the tour following an acrimonious and controversial series in Australia, Ponting hoped the upcoming contest would be played in the right spirit. "There's been a very healthy rivalry between India and Australia in one-day and Test cricket and our last few Test encounters have been very good and some very close results."

Ponting also said the decision to not tour Pakistan for the Champions Trophy had been the right one, following bomb blasts in Islamabad over the weekend. "It's devastating for the people involved," he said. "I mean, we'd be talking hypothetically of us being in the hotel, or England, or South Africa being in the hotel.

"I think what we've done, right the way through, is that we just have to listen to the advice from the experts, our Department of Foreign Affairs, and security advice. It is an absolute shame that things like this continue to happen in Pakistan because, believe it or not, as players, you want to ... play in all the conditions around the world."