Crouched and ready for action.
Punter Ponting goes on the front foot about Poms, PSPs and pinkies.
Good to speak to you, mate. Our squad’s changed loads since the last Ashes – who are you looking at to stand up?
[Phillip] Hughes is starting his career really well and making a truckload of runs, and Mitch [Johnson] has been one of our most consistent performers. But I reckon Hilf and Siddle. The conditions in England are going to suit those guys down to a tee.
Most dangerous Pom?
KP [Kevin Pietersen], but we’ll also have to see how [Andrew] Flintoff comes up.
The 2005 Ashes series was bittersweet – awesome series but we lost. Did you enjoy it at all?
I enjoyed the contest, but I didn’t enjoy coming home from it too much. I had to face up to a lot of stuff. To tell you the truth, though, it probably reignited Test cricket for a couple of years.
A Steve Harmison effort ball got through your helmet in 2005 and cut you pretty badly, but you barely even flinched.
I got a nice big scar on my cheek from that one. When it hit me I looked around and thought, “I’m alright here.” but then I looked down and I had blood pouring onto my pants and shirt.
That moment was a nice example of the tension in the series.
Yeah, they had spoken about, if something happened, not to come over and see if you’re OK and they stayed away from me. Which suited me fine – if they’d come over I would’ve cleared them off anyway.
Got a favourite Ashes Test?
Adelaide in the last series. We’d done very well in Brisbane [won by 277 runs] and we went down to Adelaide and they dominated the first couple of days. All the talk started up again and people were like, “Here we go again, Australia can’t win”. That was the motivation I used with the whole team. To win a Test on the last day after being out-played for a couple of days, that’s what Test cricket’s all about. We knew when we won that game we’d broken their backs and that they couldn’t come back. That was a special moment for me.
Hypothetical for you. It’s day five of the last Test of the Ashes and you need a win to retain it. You only need five more wickets but it’s raining. God, in the form of Don Bradman, comes and says, “I’ll give you sun, but when you retire, you’ll lose a finger.” Will you do it?
Straight away I’m looking at my hands, trying to figure out which fingers I don’t need. I’ll probably lose them anyway – they’re all bent and bunged up. Yeah, OK, I’ll take that.
Also, you have to cut it off yourself.
That’s OK, take one of the little ones. Let’s do it.
There are a few younger blokes in the side these days. Are there any serious gamers in the team?
Yeah, quite a few actually. Ben Hilfenhaus and James Hopes are the most serious gamers. They’re always playing sporting games and Call of Duty. They do get pretty seriously involved.
What's your favourite cricket memory? Let us know in the comments section below.
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