Australia captain Ricky Ponting faces a selection dilemma for his side’s World Cup Group A match against India on Saturday, with batsmen Darren Lehmann and Michael Bevan available again. Lehmann has returned from a five-match suspension and Bevan from a groin injury, but accommodating both could mean all rounder Ian Harvey missing out, thus weakening the bowling against India’s high-class line-up.“It has not been a pleasant dilemma, it has been hard work and we have been talking about it for the past day,” Ponting told reporters on Friday.The defending champions have named a 12-man line-up for their second match of the tournament, seamer Andy Bichel and batsman Jimmy Maher both missing out from the squad of 14. Maher’s absence creates a spot for one of the returning batsmen as he played against Pakistan at The Wanderers last Tuesday, but there is still the problem over who else will be sidelined. Before Tuesday’s game, Andrew Symonds would probably have been dropped but his unbeaten 143, which helped Australia to victory by 82 runs, has virtually guaranteed his place. With so much pressure on batting spots, Damien Martyn could find himself out in the cold after a first-ball duck in Australia’s Cup opener.“If Harvey plays, one of the batsmen will go but I don’t know who it would be or even if Harvey will play,” said Ponting. “We have got to weigh up whether we go in with a stronger bowling line-up to combat their batting or just pit our batsmen against their batsmen.”The most likely outcome is that Harvey will miss out, even though that would be tough on him after he took four wickets and scored 24 from 19 balls in the win over Pakistan. “It’s a decision we can’t really come to at the moment but I have said for a long time that Darren Lehmann is more reliable as a bowler than he used to be,” said Ponting, hinting he is leaning towards playing the extra batsman. Damien Martyn can also bowl a bit of medium pace if the wicket starts to slow up a bit, and we have got a few other options. (Reuters)
