There were not many mornings in Ricky Ponting’s life as an international cricketer when he didn’t wake up as part of a world champion team. Twice he was at the helm of the World Cup winning Australian teams. Ponting knows all too well what it is like to go into the big tournament with everyone expecting you to win, as does the Australian team in general. Now that the World Cup is at home and the team has been in brilliant form, the Aussies are being tipped as favourites to lift the 2015 World Cup. Ponting gives the thought his nod. “I think Australia are favourites,” the former Australian captain told BCCI.TV “It is a tag that will sit well with them. Most World Cups I have been part of, we were favourites. But you don’t think about it. You just go out there, try and prepare as well as you can and go and play. “Just because you’re the favourite going into the game, doesn’t change anything. But this team, they were very impressive in their first game against England and the balance they have in the squad right now is probably as good as I have seen for a while.” Along with Australia, Ponting has high hopes from co-hosts, New Zealand, and South Africa, who he considers as “stand-out” teams to watch out for this World Cup. However, the Aussie doesn’t discount the threat that Team India are capable of posing in big tournaments like this. They haven’t had the best of times in Australia before the World Cup but the 76-run win over Pakistan in their first match of the campaign tells Ponting that MS Dhoni’s men will only get better as the tournament progresses. “I think they will get better,” Ponting said of India. “It was a very encouraging start for India the other day, although I thought it was a pretty weak Pakistani side. “India got into the World Cup after a tough time in the Test series and the tri-series. But I got a feeling that they got a bit of a downtime after that and started to build things up at the start of this tournament. “India have got too many class players in their team to not be serious contenders at some stage. If they happen to play as well as they can, they are very dangerous,” Ponting said. For India to fulfill their potential, a massive improvement they will need is in their bowling department, feels Ponting. “Bowling is a concern; it always is,” Ponting said. “When any Indian team goes to play in Australia or similar conditions, it is always the bowling that is the weak point. Their batting, however, is outstanding. We all know that.” A peculiar aspect of this World Cup, according to Ponting, will be the fact that it will be played across some of the biggest and smallest cricket grounds in the world. Ponting feels that teams and captains will find it a challenge to alter their batting, bowling and field placing strategies to suit the contrasting sizes of the outfields. Ponting also feels that the smaller grounds in New Zealand will make the hosts extremely difficult to beat. “It will be a huge contrast and that’s why I think New Zealand will be really hard to beat,” Ponting said. “They’ve got an incredible record at home in One-day International cricket. It doesn’t matter who goes there – whether it is Australia or South Africa or any other team – the Kiwis very rarely lose a series at home. “I think you might also find a lot of teams trying to chase runs in New Zealand because of the smaller grounds. It is much easier to chase runs on smaller grounds.” The legendary batsman also predicted that the trend we have seen in the initial matches of the World Cup, of 300-plus totals, will continue throughout the tournament. He said the going will be particularly tough for the spin bowlers. “The scoring in one-day cricket has gone through the roofs with two new white balls and the changes in field restrictions. You do feel for the bowlers, especially for the spinners. It is particularly hard for the spinners to bowl with only four men out. “There has been a lot spoken about the boundaries getting smaller and the bats getting bigger. The game has definitely become tough on the bowlers,” he said.