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Ponting unfazed by unusual task

Australia captain Ricky Ponting conceded his side will face an unfamiliar challenge as they attempt to win the Test series in India from 1-0 down.

India claimed a 320-run win in the second Test in Mohali yesterday to seize the initiative in the four-Test series.

Now Australia must find a way to overturn the deficit, starting with the third Test in Delhi next week.

"That's the challenge we are confronted with right now,” Ponting said. "We are not accustomed to being behind in Test series.

"I guess we are not as accustomed to being beaten as easily as we have been in this game.

Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting recognises Australia must regroup if they are to win the Test series

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"But at the end of the day, you can only take away the lessons you might have learnt from this game.

"Once we get back from a couple of days off we will sit down and discuss what we ought to do and what we want to achieve and how we do that for the remainder of the series.

"But I've got total confidence in our group and with the experience and the talent that we have got in our changing room, I'm sure we can turn things around pretty quickly."

Ponting took some comfort from the form of Shane Watson, who scored 78 in the first innings, and vice-captain Michael Clarke, who hit 69 in the second.

"I think (Watson) showed everybody that he was more than capable with the way he played in the first innings,” he said. "That is really a good positive for us.

"It's great to see Michael Clarke right back in the runs and playing very well in the second innings.

"He's had success here in the past; I think he just needed a few runs under his belt for his own confidence more than anything.

"Other than that, we haven't had too many other positives in the game, but we did have plenty of positives in the first game.

"So we know its all there and its all about thinking about it as an individual player and see how we can have more of an impact on this series than some of us have had so far.

"We will get into some pretty intensive training leading up to the Test and make sure that when we hit the ground in Delhi we make sure things a lot different than they are here."

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