September 26, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 25, 1429

NEW DELHI, Sept 25: Indian seamer Zaheer Khan fired the first salvo ahead of the Test series against Australia, saying on Thursday that rival captain Ricky Ponting was rattled by the task ahead.

The left-arm seamer based his assumption on Ponting’s comments last week that India were favourites to win the four-Test series because of their experienced batting line-up.

“I was actually surprised by the statement made by Ponting,” Zaheer told the NDTV news channel.

“For a captain who is leading the number one Test side to say something like that definitely shows there is a lot of pressure on him getting into the series.”

Zaheer said Ponting’s own poor batting record in India, where he averages 12.28 from eight Tests despite being one of only seven batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs, could be behind the Australian’s comments.

“The reason can be that he has not scored many runs in India. That should definitely work to our advantage,” stated Zaheer.

Only four Australians in the current squad — Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke and Simon Katich — have played a Test match before on Indian soil.

Australia beat India 2-1 on their previous tour of the country in 2004 to record their first series win on Indian soil in 35 years.

Earlier this year, Ponting’s men beat India by a similar margin in an acrimonious series in Australia that was marked by questionable umpiring and deteriorating relations between the two sides.

The tourists are currently training in Jaipur ahead of the four-day match against the Indian board president’s XI in Hyderabad from Oct 2.—AFP