Cricket: Ponting loves Basin pitch

Ricky Ponting. Photo / Brett Phibbs

It doesn't bode well when Australia's cricketers say they don't want to leave Wellington.

Captain Ricky Ponting said his pacemen all wanted to put up a tent beside the bouncy Basin Reserve practice pitches in recent days, and curator Brett Sipthorpe predicted the strip for today's first test against New Zealand would be similar.

"We like to think this is one of the fastest, bounciest tracks around," Sipthorpe said.

He said the pitch would be similar to the way it was for the Pakistan test in December, which the tourists won by 141 runs.

There was no pre-match request for particular conditions from the home side, Sipthorpe said, and he'd prepared a pitch with a hard base and a good covering of dead grass, meaning solid pace and carry.

Ponting was pleasantly surprised by the Basin conditions, chilly breeze aside, and said pacemen Doug Bollinger, Ryan Harris, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson were eager to get under way against the New Zealand top order.

Ponting all but named his side yesterday, with batsman Phil Hughes, allrounder Steve Smith and paceman Clint McKay likely to miss the cut. Potential test debutant Harris, who impressed during the ODI series, would play if he passed a fitness test on his side strain.

"Everything he's done in the last couple of days with his bowling has been good. Things at the moment are pretty positive with him."

Harris proved he could swing the ball at good pace, Ponting said, and if fit would share the new ball with left-armer Bollinger with the dangerous Johnson to bowl first change.

Vice-captain Michael Clarke was ready to go, Ponting said, after his much-publicised breakup with model Lara Bingle which saw him quit the tour and return to Sydney, before rejoining his teammates in Wellington a week later.

"I only had to ask him a simple question, are you right to go?" Ponting said.

"There's no doubt it's been a tough week or couple of weeks for him, but I know Michael well enough to know if he wasn't ready to come back and play he wouldn't have come."

- NZPA