It's not often that Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has his back to the wall. More so because his team has been caught off guard by quicks rather than the spinners, who were expected to trouble the visitors.

While Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma have troubled the Aussie batsmen with reverse swing, even their spearhead Brett Lee has struggled to get past the Indians.

"We have seen in the first two Tests that reverse swing has played a very big part and probably more so in the last game. The Indians certainly outbowled us with reverse swing in the last Test and it is up to our batsmen now if that's what is going to happen for the remainder of the series," Ponting said yesterday adding that his pacers have not been up to the mark.

"At different times, we have had the ball reverse swinging as well but you can reverse swing it as much as you like, unless you bowl it in the right areas. I think our bowlers have been a little bit off with their lines and lengths with the reverse swinging ball and we have paid the price for that," said the skipper, who is taking cortisone shots to play the Test because of a wrist injury.

But the positive for Australia is that they had a much-needed eight-day break that has allowed them to analyse what went wrong and work on it.

"The break has certainly done us some good. Back-to-back Test matches are always hard to play in. I basically said to the guys after Mohali to better forget this Test and get away from cricket for a couple of days. Have a think about where you can improve yourself as an individual and have a think about how you can help the team," Ponting said.

"Since we have been back, we spoke about a lot of things and, more importantly, they have been put in practice in the last couple of days. Our training has been spot-on. We are definitely very well prepared for this Test match. I think you will see a better Australian team than the one that took the field in Mohali," the skipper added.