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.

Unbeaten home summer a sensational achievement: Ponting

“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)

It’s three months since West Indies played their first match of this tour and they are about to embark on their last chance to beat Australia. A 2-0 Test loss was followed by a 4-0 one-day defeat and a disappointing effort in the first Twenty20. The shortest format might be their best chance to beat Australia but in truth, there has been precious little in their performances over the past couple of weeks to suggest that they will succeed. The story of the top order has been no Gayle, no hope, and their captain’s wild swing to be bowled by Shaun Tait in Hobart continued his lean run in the past month.

For Australia, the lure of an unbeaten season is tantalisingly close. The only matches they have failed to win were the Adelaide Test draw with West Indies and the Sydney one-day wash-out, also against Gayle’s men. The Twenty20 outfit looked sharp on Sunday, especially the attack as Tait and Dirk Nannes sped through West Indies’ batting line-up. The openers David Warner and Shane Watson also fired but finding a cohesive and in-form middle order could be the challenge between now and the ICC World Twenty20.