Unbeaten home summer a sensational achievement: Ponting

Sydney, Feb 22(ANI): Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is of the view that his team is in great shape after remaining unbeaten in all formats of the game at home this summer.

Ponting stressed that the team is heading in the right direction, and said he was thrilled with the wins against West Indies and Pakistan despite having a relatively inexperienced team.

"Despite losing a number of big-name players in recent years, I believe we played some very good cricket. The problem was we'd either been really good or really ordinary, which cost us the Test series against South Africa in Australia last summer and the Ashes," Ponting wrote in an article for the Australian.

"Three months after we spoke about the importance of consistency, I could not be happier. We won five of the six Tests against the West Indies and Pakistan, with a draw against the West Indies in Adelaide, and nine of the 10 one-day matches, with a washout against the West Indies in Sydney," he added.

The 35-year-old further insisted that a lot can be said about the performance of the opposition, but believes that his team did not allow them to take charge in any of the games.

"This is the first time in nine years that we have gone through a home summer without losing a Test or one-day match. That's a sensational achievement and is something that has probably been a little bit overlooked," Ponting said.

"We set and maintained high standards, regardless of the opposition teams that we played and we hardly gave them a sniff. We've been dominant in almost every day's play, whether it was batting or bowling," he added. (ANI)