‘With Punter around, Oz players like 8-yr-old girls around Bieber’

London, May 20 

Australia’s cricketers in front of Ricky Ponting are “like eight-year-old girls around Justin Bieber”, feels the team’s World Cup skipper Aaron Finch about the batting great, whose mere presence gives them a fillip. In February, Ponting was appointed as an assistant coach for Australia’s World Cup campaign, specifically working with the limited-overs batsmen. Ponting has previously worked short-term with Australia’s ODI and T20 squads. “All the boys want to impress Punter,” Finch was quoted as saying. “Everyone wants to impress Punter, you should see them — it’s like eight-year-old girls around Justin Bieber when Punter’s around the change room,” he said, drawing comparisons between Ponting and the famous Canadian singer-songwriter. “It’s embarrassing, but it’s great,” Finch said of the legend who won the World Cup three times including twice as captain.

Develop thick skin to bowl on England pitches: Langer 

The bowlers need to develop “thick skin” to counter flat wickets and fast outfields in England during the World Cup, reckons Australia coach Justin Langer. 

In the recent batsmen-dominated ODI series, hosts England and Pakistan put on board close to 350 runs in almost every match. Langer said the bowlers need to take the responsibility of stopping teams from posting huge totals. “There’s a lot of talk about batting now in white-ball cricket, but our bowling is absolutely critical. In T20 it’s absolutely critical and the same in ODI cricket. You’re going to have a pretty thick skin to do well in international cricket, particularly on the flatter wickets and the fast outfields and the big squares we play on in England,” said Langer. — Agencies