The Australian team leaves for the team hotel after arriving at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Tuesday evening.

Mumbai: The Australian team led by Ricky Ponting arrived here on Tuesday for a seven-match one-day international series, the first of which will be played at Vadodara on Oct. 25.

Two years ago an Australian team (Adam Gilchrist was the captain for the first two one-day internationals) beat India 4-2 in a seven-match series. The first match in Bangalore was abandoned due to rain after Australia set India a target of 308.

PTI adds

Meanwhile, before leaving Sydney, Ponting called for a rethink of one-day cricket to end meaningless dead rubbers as he left for a seven-game series in India.

Ponting said a points system was needed to give all one-dayers “significant meaning,” citing Australia’s lop-sided 6-1 win against England last month.

“The way that one-day cricket is played at the moment with one-off series like this — until there is a points system in place then it might get to the same sort of situation as it did in the UK,” he said late on Monday.

“We were 4-0 up after four games and all of a sudden there is talk of teams rotating players in and out and doing all sorts of things.

“So the important thing I think is we make sure that every game of 50-over cricket has some significant meaning.”

With one-day cricket undergoing threat from Twenty20, fast bowler Mitchell Johnson backed the 50-over format and said he hoped it “doesn’t die.”

Test No.1

“Test cricket is number one for me but then it’s followed by 50-over cricket,” he said. “I prefer 50-over cricket (over Twenty20). I hope it doesn’t die, because I love the game.”

Australia embarks on the series, starting on Sunday in Vadodara, with an undecided batting line-up after Michael Clarke delayed his departure to deal with recurring back problems.

“He’s not an old man, so we’ve got to be very careful that we don’t flog him to death as a 27 or 28-year-old as he is now,” said coach Tim Nielsen.

“Having just been named as the Twenty20 captain he’ll be playing all forms of the game and taking on a really important role for us in Twenty20 cricket moving forward.

“So when it does come to a head and does flare up pretty badly we’ve just got to make sure we get him 100 per cent right.”

Fitness problem

Ponting said Australia had much to ponder with Callum Ferguson also sidelined with a serious knee injury. Former opener Shaun Marsh returns from a hamstring problem but rookie Tim Paine has also been in excellent form.

“The selectors and myself are going to have a bit of thinking to do over the next few days as to what we do with the batting line-up,” Ponting said.

“Paine coming in has had a fair bit of success at the top of the order and (he’s) given himself every opportunity to remain there.”

“But whichever way we go there we know we’ve got very good depth in our batting with someone like Shaun coming back in, so hopefully we get it right on the morning of the first game,” he added.

Australia holds a narrow, four-point lead at the top of the one-day rankings over India, which surprisingly slumped out of this month’s Champions Trophy in the group stages.

“They will be particularly hard to beat in India, they always are,” Ponting said. “They definitely play a lot better at home than they do when they travel.”

To Australia’s relief Shaun Marsh is back in the team after recovering from a hamstring injury that has kept him out since April but it would be quite a task for him to strike form immediately and knock off in-form Tim Paine from the opening slot.

“Paine coming in has had a fair bit of success at the top of the order and given himself every opportunity to remain there,” Ponting said.

“You go back six or seven months, then Shaun was one of the up-and-coming batsmen in our Australian team and someone who has got a very good record at the top of the order for us, so we’ve got some tough decisions to make there.

“But whichever way we go there we know we’ve got very good depth in our batting with someone like Shaun coming back in, so hopefully we get it right on the morning of the first game,” he added.

Surprise selection

Asked about the surprise selection of rookie spinner Jon Holland, who is currently in India playing in the Champions League Twenty20, Ponting said he has seen him for only 20 minutes in the nets.

“I’ve seen 20 minutes of him bowling in the nets leading up to the Boxing Day Test last year, that’s as much as I’ve seen of Jon,” Ponting said.

“He gets good raps from all the other Victorian guys ... everyone believes he’s got a good future. It’s great to have a young cricketer around the group, especially a young spinner making a tour of India,” Ponting added.

The 22-year-old is part of the Victoria Bushrangers squad and Ponting hoped that the youngster would come good when presented with an opportunity.

“You can’t help but learn when you get over there and bowl in those conditions and bowl to better players like Jon will be doing,” he said.

“He’ll be bowling to all the Australian batsmen over the next few weeks and he might get an opportunity to bowl to some very good players of spin in the Indian batsmen, so some great opportunities lie ahead for Jon. I’m looking forward to spending some time with him over the next few weeks,” he added.

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