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| | GEO Sports | | Ponting wants his bowlers to be masters of reverse swing | Updated at: 1740 PST, Wednesday, October 22, 2008
 MOHALI: Australia's inability to reverse swing the ball is a cause of concern as they head into the third Test 1-0 down, skipper Ricky Ponting has admitted.
Australia's struggles with the ball have been exposed all the more because of the success the Indian bowlers enjoyed in the second Test, which they won Tuesday by a record 320-run margin to seize the lead in the four-Test series.
Left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan picked three wickets from four balls on the fifth morning with a prodigiously swinging ball, leaving the Aussies completely bamboozled.
Young Ishant Sharma was equally effective, troubling the batsmen with his monstrous swing, underlined by his sensational dismissals of Ponting in both
the innings.
Ponting said it was imperative for his bowlers to achieve reverse swing early in the innings as the Indians have managed to do.
"We do need to definitely get it going as quickly as we possibly can," he said after the team's defeat here on Tuesday.
"The Indians have been getting the ball to swing extremely quickly, as early as the eighth over, which is amazing. But for us it is not swinging. This has made a huge difference."
Ponting praised the Indian bowlers.
"We always expected that Zaheer and Sharma would come down hard at us and they have showed in this game how good they are.
"Sharma used the swinging ball very well. The angle that Sharma creates is unusual. He is posing a challenge for us. We will have to find ways to combat their bowlers."
But the Australian bowlers have done little to earn their skipper's praise.
Pace spearhead Brett Lee has looked off-colour in the series while Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle have also failed to do anything extraordinary.
The Mohali match saw the Aussie bowlers leak 100 runs in 23 overs to India on the third afternoon before allowing them a whopping 55 runs in the first 10 overs of the next morning.
Ponting though tried to defend his fast bowlers, none of whom had played a Test in India before this series.
"They have not been able to bowl in the right areas for a longer period as the Indians have. The key is to be consistent for extended periods of play.
"Lee is a champion bowler. But as a fast bowler, if you are just a bit off, you can be made to look silly."
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