Australians have their tasks cut out.

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We're the team to beat - Ponting

Ricky Ponting is confident his squad can erase the "bit of negativity" gained during its five-match losing streak and retain the World Cup in the West Indies. As the squad prepared to leave for the Caribbean, Ponting hoped Australia would be the outright favourites when the tournament starts on March 11.

"I know we're going to be extremely hard to beat," Ponting said at the airport in Sydney. "We're drifting favourites but, once the cricket gets underway, hopefully you'll see some cricket that's going to mean that we still are the favourites going in."

Everybody is saying Australia is going through a down slide after 5 successive defeats. In my opinion, this could be the best thing happened to a team like Australia just before the world cup. They will come back hard at everybody. Expecte a better and stronger Australian team. My personal favorites are Indians but for a great team, Australians are the team to watch.