Ponting is ready to take on the South Africans

Former Australia Test captain Ricky Ponting has revealed that he went through a painful and gruelling training schedule to get himself in shape for the upcoming South Africa Test series in November.

Ponting has not represented Australia in a Test match since April against the West Indies, and he also admitted that he had been preparing himself to face the South African bowling attack, who, in his opinion, are the most lethal out of all the international teams.

“I gave my body and mind a bit of a rest because I bashed myself up pretty much during the summer last year, so after the West Indies I had a couple of months off with nothing and then about 12 weeks where I just trained myself into the ground really, physically. I got myself in good physical shape. I’m a few kilos down again at the start of the season and feeling really good and feel like I’m moving really good,” Ponting said.

Ponting knows that Australia have to be on top of their game if they are going to defeat South Africa and be named as the new number one Test team.

“They’re the number one team in the world and they are that for a reason, they have got probably the best fast bowling attack going around … they bat really low as well … they’re an exceptionally well-balanced side. But saying that, we have had some great contests against them since I have been playing forAustralia. They have never really dominated us and the series have been great contests. We know that if we do everything as well as we can in Australia this year, they will find it hard to beat us,” Ponting added.