NEW DELHI: The legendary Ricky Ponting remarked on Thursday that the bowlers let the team down by bowling too short on the opening day at the Oval as Australia scored 469 in the first innings against India in the ongoing World Test Championship final.
India unexpectedly decided to bowl in the Final, but they were unable to take advantage of the conditions as Australia’s first innings tally, which included scores from Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121), was impressive.
Ponting believed that instead of bowling short in the opening session of Day 1, the Indian bowlers should have tried to bowl longer lengths.
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“I believe that they fell short yesterday during the first hour of play by bowling too few frames. They had to bowl fuller and get the ball driven back down the ground because of the wicket conditions, the overhead conditions they had, and the brand-new Dukes ball, according to the former Australia captain, who spoke to ICC.
According to Ponting, the first session on the first day was the finest so far in terms of aiding fast bowlers. “They needed to have Australia four or five down at lunch and they only had them two down which was a pretty good result (for Australia),” he added.
Ponting called Mohammed Siraj, a pacer, the “ultimate competitor” and lauded him for his persistence. Siraj (4/108) bowled as well as he could, but the other India was unable to prevent Australia from scoring 469 runs.
Siraj, who took out Usman Khawaja (0), Head, Pat Cummins (9), and Nathan Lyon (9) to reach 50 wickets in Test cricket, was possibly the only bright spot for India with the ball.
“I enjoyed witnessing that, and he appears to be the ultimate rival. When things aren’t going well, you need those individuals at your side, even if he occasionally gets carried away and goes a little bit over the top, Ponting added.
The right-arm bowler impressed with his aggressive play on the pitch and attacked Australia with short pitches.
“He was the one who claimed today (Thursday) that I would be the one to turn things around, and what I enjoyed was that his pace remained constant throughout the entire inning.
“His pace was hovering around that 86 or 87 mile per hour mark from the first ball yesterday morning until late this afternoon, and that says a lot about a great attitude,” said the coach.
Ponting stated India’s decision to play four seamers may benefit off later in the game without getting into the debate of whether Ravichnadran Ashwin should have been played in the WTC final.
“I am aware that the captain takes the most of the criticism, but I also am aware that it was not only his decision. Yesterday morning, I overheard Rahul Dravid and him (Rohit Sharma) conversing in the middle of the pitch about their plans for the toss. said Ponting.
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“I believe they had to use the four seamers if they wanted to bowl first. You could say that it hasn’t so far paid off, but there’s still a long way to go, so we shouldn’t pass judgement too soon,” he added.
source from: msn.com
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