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Ahmedabad - Australia's pace attack may win them many a battle, but the World Cup champions still seem to be grappling with finding a solution to their perennial problem of handling quality spin on sub-continent wickets.
Having walloped England 6-1 on the bouncy wickets back home in the one-day series that followed the Ashes, Ricky Ponting's men have still not shown the level of confidence against spin they need to ace the ongoing edition.
"We need to sort out our game and our game plans for better spin attacks. There is no doubt about that," captain Ponting told reporters after his team's 91-run win over Zimbabwe in their opening Group A match.
In the practice matches against India and South Africa, they suffered thumping losses after their middle order folded up meekly, with 13 out of the possible 20 wickets going to spinners.
Monday's outing against Zimbabwe proved to be less troublesome, but the self-belief was still not at the desired level for the one-time undisputed world beaters.
Australia broke free through vice-captain Michael Clarke, David Hussey and Steve Smith in the final overs to reach 262 for six, after being tied down by some disciplined Zimbabwe bowling at the start, scoring only 28 runs in the first 10 overs.
But, with matches coming up against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the group stage, they would need to show better application if they are to improve on their 30-match unbeaten streak in the World Cup.
The likes of Muttiah Muralitharan, Daniel Vettori and Saeed Ajmal will become more deadly if they are given a sniff of blood.
Ponting did not disagree.
"We know that we need improvement there," Ponting said. "We know that the spinning factor in this tournament is going to be a big one."
He, however, was confident that Australia will get better as they become more acclimatised with the conditions.
"The first task today was getting used to the conditions and having a good solid performance," he explained.
"We are not quite there just yet, but I think the more we play and we get more adjusted to the conditions we will get better."
