Australia’s tri-series loss to India at home will rankle

Australia's recent form is impressive, but the tri-series loss to India at home will rankle

Australia's tri-series loss to India at home will rankle

Australia's recent form is impressive, but the tri-series loss to India at home will rankle

Over the last couple of years, as the big guns of Australian cricketu00a0 bid adieu, the team started losing ground and many started predicting the end of Australia's domination in world cricket.

That may still be true in Test cricket as Ricky Ponting's team has not enjoyed the success it used to. The Aussies seem to be rebuilding into the all-conquering force once again in the one-day format after initial struggle and series losses at home to India and South Africa in the last two years.

Australia may have had a great record (19 wins in 25 editions) in the triangular series, a regular feature on the Australian cricket calendar for 25 years.

But the loss to India in the very last one in 2007-08 will still hurt Ponting. That both teams didn't need to contest a third final added to the embarrassment in a truly forgettable summer for the Aussies.u00a0

And as they prepare to take on India in the seven-match ODI series which starts this Sunday, they will be keyed up to tell the world that they are still the best in business as far as 50-overs cricket is concerned.

Australia have looked their old, ruthless self in beating England 6-1 and then defending their Champions Trophy crown. Ponting knows that winning a series here will prove that this side is just as consistent as those in the past. "We will identify in the next couple of days the little things that we have to do to play well and give ourselves the best chance of winning the series," Ponting said yesterday.

Goals
"What we want to achieve as a one-day outfit is to be very consistent. The Australian teams of the past were very consistent and it didn't matter where we played or whom we played. Our level of performance was very good.

"What we have experienced in the last couple of years has been some ups and downs in our consistency. Our Test cricket and one-day cricket at different times has been very good and at times it has been very ordinary.

At the moment we have played some very good one-day cricket and I would expect that to continue over the next couple of weeks in India," Ponting said.