Veteran Australian cricketer RickyPonting is excited to captain Mumbai Indians (MI) in the sixth edition of theIndian Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament this season.
Mumbai Indians will play their first game against hosts Royal ChallengersBangalore (RCB) Thursday at the Chinnaswamy stadium in the city centre.
"It's the first time I am captaining a team in this format of the game(T20) though I played back home in such games as a regular player. I am alsoexcited to play with great cricketers like Sachin (Tendulkar) and Harbhajan(Singh)," Ponting told reporters late Wednesday after a gruelling practicesession at the nets under the floodlights.
Being aware of the team not having won the IPL tournament so far despitereaching the finals once and semi-finals twice in the past, Ponting said theteam was not thinking about the title right now but on Thursday's game againstRCB.
"There are some teams which have not won the tournament either in spite ofbeing right up there. We are thinking of tomorrow's (Thursday) game. We cannotafford to look too far ahead. I am sure towards the end of the tournament, wewill be right up there," Ponting asserted at the pre-match presser.
Admitting that the team would miss its ace seamer Lasith Malinga in the openingtie as he is suffering from a sour back, Ponting said the Sri Lankan playerwould join the team in Mumbai April 5 and hopefully fit to play soon.
"It is disappointing to miss Malinga in the first game. I hope he will beokay after a couple of days and be fit to play for us. We could use MitchellJohnson, Jacob Oram or Nathan Coulter-Nile in place of Malinga," theformer Aussie skipper said.
Though Mumbai Indians play their next game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) atChennai April 6, Malinga will not be in the team owing to the ban on Sri Lankanplayers in all matches hosted in Chennai over the Sri Lankan-Tamils' issue.
Asked who would join Tendulkar for opening the innings, Ponting said thoughanybody could do so, the team management would decide Thursday evening afterassessing the weather, the pitch condition and toss.
"Anybody can open with Sachin depending upon weather and pitch conditions.We could end up playing a shorter game as it has been raining here during thepast days, but not Wednesday. Keeping this in mind, we will decide on theopening combination before toss," the skipper observed.
He, however, admitted that in the last couple of seasons, the team had swappedand employing different opening combinations.