Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes his new-look side can shine at the Champions Trophy which gets underway in South Africa on Tuesday.
Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes his new-look side can shine at the Champions Trophy which gets underway in South Africa on Tuesday.
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Australia lost the seventh and final ODI against England by four wickets here on Sunday, but stil captured the series 6-1 to ease a little of the pain caused by the loss of the Ashes.
"The last few weeks have been terrific for us. For someone like Cameron White to be the Man of the Series is a terrific effort for a young player," said Ponting.
"(Tim) Paine has been terrific for us as well, so all in all, we can go to South Africa really happy with what we have achieved here and with a bit of confidence behind us."
Graeme Swann believes inconsistent England could easily be the surprise package of this year's Champions Trophy despite captain Andrew Strauss warning drastic improvements are needed.
Swann took five wickets and was the inspiration behind Sunday's four-wicket victory.
But the fact they made such hard work of chasing down a relatively straight-forward target of 177 highlighted enduring failings in their batting line-up.
Ravi Bopara, Matt Prior and Owais Shah all travel to South Africa this week for the Champions Trophy in woeful form with the bat.
Their struggles have been some of the few predictable elements of a summer which has seen England lose to Holland in the World Twenty20, endure a 6-1 limited-overs thrashing by Australia, yet regain the Ashes and comprehensively outplay the West Indies in all formats.
Swann thinks a change of environment could be enough for England.
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