India may opt for three pacers after Australia's struggle against WI: Ponting

India might employ a three-pace attack against Australia on Sunday after watching the defending champions' top-order struggle against a barrage of bouncers by a hostile West Indies pace battery, feels Ricky Ponting.

The West Indies trio of Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cottrell and Andre Russell terrorised the Australian batsmen with their fiery pace and disconcerting short balls, reducing the five-time champions to 38 for four at one stage during last World Cup match Thursday.

Two-time World Cup winning captain Ponting, who is currently the assistant coach, believed the sight of his boys scurrying for cover might tempt the Indian team management to go with three quicks instead of playing two wrist-spinners.

"(Jasprit) Bumrah we know is a very good new ball bowler and I'm sure he'll mix it up and bowl some short stuff and some full stuff," Ponting was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

"Bhuvneshwar will probably not worry you too much with his pace or his bouncers. Hardik can maybe rush you a little bit, so maybe they have a decision to make on the overall make up of their side.

"Do they maybe go with only the one spinner and use (off-spinning allrounder) Kedhav Jadav as a second spinner and play another fast bowler? We'll worry about that in the next couple of days and make sure all the boys are prepared."
"It could be just a good learning curve for those guys at the top and hopefully they'll bounce back strong."
"You've got to find a way to cope and a way to get through hostile spells knowing that it's not going to last forever."