Australia eager for action after washout

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Australia's middle order hasn't had much time in the middle © Getty Images Enlarge

Australia's batsmen will enter next Sunday's match against Kenya having not had an innings for 15 days, after their wash-out in Colombo on Saturday. And as they head towards the business end of the tournament, Ricky Ponting said it was "not ideal" preparation, and his batsmen will be keen for some time at the crease when they take on Kenya and Canada in Bangalore.

The rain pelted down after 32.5 overs of Sri Lanka's innings on Saturday, denying the Australians a chance to chase what would have been a challenging total. And because of the comfortable victory over New Zealand in Nagpur a week earlier, several men will have had nothing but net practice since their tournament opener against Zimbabwe in Ahmedabad on February 21.

"It's not ideal, but we've known that was a chance to happen right the way through, before the tournament even started," Ponting said. "If you look a bit deeper than that, some of our middle-order players haven't even got much exposure in the first couple of games either.

"We'll have to think about what's going to be the right thing for us to do as far as our team composition and where we bat guys and how we use the bowlers in the two games coming up. I don't want to be tinkering with things too much and changing things around too much, but after a game like today where you're 30 overs in and it's washed out, it just makes us think that little bit more about it."

That might mean a chance up the order for David Hussey, who has faced only eight balls in the World Cup, or Steven Smith, who has spent only four deliveries at the crease. Adding to the squeeze is Michael Hussey, who's been called up as the injured Doug Bollinger's replacement.

Although the washout is unlikely to hurt Australia considerably, it was less than ideal for the Sri Lankans, who now have only five points from four matches. If Australia win as expected against Kenya and Canada, it will extend their unbeaten run in World Cup matches to 34, and it could mean their final pool match against Pakistan is a battle to finish on top of Group A.

"We want to win every game we play, it's as simple as that," Ponting said. "We won't be talking about anything else. We've got two of the lesser lights, the minnow teams coming up in the next week, so hopefully we can get the results we require out of those games and then we know we've got to come back here and play what looks to be a very good Pakistan side."