Australia captain Ricky Ponting praised India great Sachin Tendulkar ahead of their World Cup quarterfinal clash, but joked they both might need wheelchairs to play in the 2015 edition.Ponting goes into Thursday's match in Ahmedabad with his position as skipper and future as an Australia player being called into question.
However, he has won the World Cup three times - triumphing in the last two editions as captain.
Tendulkar, for all his achievements, has never won the World Cup with India's lone success coming back in 1983.
"The way he (Tendulkar) is going he could play in another World Cup yet," said Ponting.
"Hopefully tomorrow I can get myself in the sort of form to play in another one," added Ponting, who managed just 102 runs in six group matches at this event and who hasn't made an international century for 13 months.
"But we'll probably both be in wheelchairs by then," he joked.
"I'll be 40 and he'll be 42, so it will be interesting to see our running between the wickets."
Tendulkar has a record 99 international hundreds (51 in Tests and 48 in one-day internationals) and Ponting said: "It's an amazing record, an amazing achievement.
"We hope the 100th one doesn't come tomorrow. He'll be doing everything to make sure it's the case, we'll be doing everything to make sure he stays on 99 for a bit longer."
Ponting stressed the match was more than a battle between two of cricket's all-time great batsmen, highlighting India left-arm quick Zaheer Khan as a potential dangerman.
"I think he's got the majority of his wickets in the tournament when people have really tried to go after him and attack him," said Ponting.
"We could really try and put it on him and take him out of the game, because we know he's their main man, or we can go the other way and make sure we don't give him wickets and try and get to the other guys, some of the part-timers, a bit more."
"How well he starts tomorrow or how well our batters start might dictate the way we play him."
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