Australia favourites to win second Test says Ricky Ponting

Perth, Dec 11 (CRICKETNMORE): Despite India winning the first Test, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels the hosts will have an upper hand in the second Test beginning here on Friday.

India defeated Australia by 31 runs in the opening match to take a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series.

Ponting opined that the newly laid pitch at the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) Stadium here will suit the Australians more than their rivals.

"I think Perth will definitely be a lot more suitable for our guys than the Indians. But our players need to bounce back pretty quickly," Ponting told reporters.

"They were pretty poor this week and got within 30 runs. And that's not saying India played at their absolute best either, but they're absolutely capable," he added.

"There's some positives to take from it but they've also got to take a good hard look at what they've done through this game and make sure they do it a lot better."

Ponting further said Australia should not tinker with their playing XI in the second Test. 

Aaron Finch, who was playing his first Test on Australian soil, failed to live upto expectations, with scores of 0 and 11. Ponting however, dismissed suggestions that the opener should be dropped.

"Why wouldn't they do that for this game if that's their best line-up?" Ponting asked.

"I just think that would be really reactionary. The selectors have made a decision, or whoever is setting the batting order, that they think Aaron Finch is the right guy to be opening the batting for Australia.

"When you start moving guys around, it just creates more uncertainty. Finch would potentially train differently next week than he had this week because he's not opening (and) Usman has to train differently because he is opening," he added.

"Little things like that would come into their minds. If I was them, I'd be tempted to keep it the same way."