Ponting: How Australia can kickstart Cricket World Cup campaign

Australia will be out to avoid starting their World Cup campaign with costly back-to-back losses when they face rivals South Africa in a crunch clash on Thursday.

The five-time champions were resoundingly beaten by hosts India in their opening match of the tournament and now need to get their campaign back on track or risk losing touch with the early pacesetters.

The 10 teams at the Cricket World Cup 2023 are set to play each other once with little margin for error as only the top four in the standings will progress to the semi-finals.

"Australia, to me, looked to be a fair way off the mark, to be honest, in that game against India,” Ponting said on the latest episode of The ICC Review podcast.

"You can't afford to be zip-and-two (0-2) in a World Cup. We know how important it is to finish up the top of the table.

"But I've still got full faith in their squad. It is a very good squad, a very talented squad. We know there's a lot of all-rounders in that side.”

Australia arguably paid the price for starting the Cricket World Cup with few specialist spinners as they counted on Adam Zampa to make an impact.

Zampa was the leading wicket-taker in ODIs between the Cricket World Cup 2019 and the current tournament in India with 77 scalps at an average of 22.9 but had little success against the hosts.

The leg-spinner failed to take a wicket against India while conceding 53 runs off eight overs as Australia struggled to make the most of a turning pitch.

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"The other thing that I probably learned is that they're going to need Adam Zampa bowling well. It's as simple as that,” Ponting said.

"With only Zampa and (Glenn) Maxwell as the recognised spinners in their playing XI for that first game, then a lot of the wicket-taking onus is going to come back on Zampa.

“It didn't happen in game one.”

Australia quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood struck early to have India reeling at 3/2, but captain Pat Cummins had few alternatives once Virat Kohli and KL Rahul led the fight back.

The two-time World Cup winning captain Ponting urged Australia to take advantage of their depth with all-rounders to shake up their bowling attack.

"They do have the flexibility to only play the two quicks and bring in another spinner, if they want,” Ponting said.

“They've got Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh, potentially Marcus Stoinis there, that can play as the third fast bowler.

“Then it gives you an option to play the two specialist spinners plus Maxwell.”

Marsh has impressed since batting among the top order following an injury to Travis Head and is also more than capable with the ball..

But Australia missed an opportunity to push India back onto the ropes when the usually reliable Marsh grassed a simple catch from Kohli before the India star truly got going.

It is these sort of simple mistakes that Ponting believes will cost Australia

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"There's an old adage in our game, and I don't need to repeat it, but it's just another one of those little signs to me that Australia were just a little bit off game one,” Ponting said.

."The best teams that I've ever seen have always been great fielding teams. They make very few mistakes.

"Teams that win World Cups are the teams that make the fewest mistakes through a tournament.”