Colombo: Australia captain Ricky Ponting Friday said that an unpredictable Pakistan could give his side the first real test in the World Cup and asked his bowlers to prepare for a tough outing in their Group B encounter Saturday.

Ponting said he is relishing the challenge of locking horns with Pakistan, the last team to beat the defending champions at a World Cup. “The last game they played in Colombo was against Sri Lanka and they upset them there, so they’ll know the conditions pretty well. So it will be our first big test,” said Ponting at the pre-match media conference.

“It’s always a great challenge playing against Pakistan because, as everybody knows, you’re just never really sure what they’re going to turn up and do on the day,” Ponting said.

“They can be a very, very good side one day and, as we saw against New Zealand, they can be very, very ordinary the next. They have that sort of unpredictability about them,” he said.

Ponting admitted Australia’s pace trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson had not been at their best so far and he expects them to fire against Pakistan.

“Against better teams and deeper batting orders, we have to make sure we don’t let teams get off to that sort of start,” said Ponting. (PTI)