Worried Ponting vows to banish his batting woes

Sydney, Jan 7 (ANI): Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has admitted that he needs to improve his own batting after twin failures in Sydney and a continued a poor summer where he has averaged just 27 so far.

Ponting, whose average has dipped below 55 for the first time in five years, knows he has to lift his batting.

Since his debut in December 1995, Ponting has scored 11,561 runs in 141 Tests at an average of 54.79.

His elbow injury is clearly troubling him but he refused to use it as an excuse. Ponting has carried an elbow-tendon injury in scoring only 80 runs in two Tests against Pakistan.

In five Tests this summer against the West Indies and Pakistan, Ponting has scored only 216 runs at 27.00, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Tailenders Peter Siddle (39.00), Nathan Hauritz (27.00) and Mitchell Johnson (21.00) average higher than Ponting's 20.00 in the Pakistan series.

The 35-year-old skipper, who lives in Sydney but remains a proud Tasmanian, can only hope to turn things around at Bellerive Oval.

"I've been a bit restricted in the last couple of games, yeah," Ponting said after the second Test in Sydney.

"There's no doubt about that. But I'm not going to use that as an excuse for why I haven't scored as many runs as I would have liked.

"I was probably in the most pain in the first innings of the Melbourne game. But that was the highest score (57) that I've made in the four innings that I've had in the first two Tests," he said.

"I put my hand up and said I'm right to play and I've got to get out there and make runs. That's my job," Ponting added. (ANI)