Ricky Ponting is not having an easy time off it. The heat under his collar has often become too uncomfortable and often it is the series against India that have not spared him the agony faced by his predecessor. Now it appears the people within the ranks are unable to hold their thoughts back much longer.
One had only to watch the action on the field on the fourth day to know something about the play on the field was not Australian, leave alone cricket. It seemed even uncharacteristic of Ponting himself to go into such a defensive shell over a matter that involved only him and not the team. Not one to take a back seat, by foot or word, Ponting’s tactics supposedly contrived with Michael Clarke, the next in line in two, left the Australians fuming and Indians gasping in relief.
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Ponting knows very well that Clarke’s time as captaincy beckons. The series in India where Australia failed to pick Jason Krezja in the first three games as also some of the rather defensive episodes right through the series where Australia were almost too afraid to press the button on the accelerator lest it result in an incident of spontaneous combustion also led to moments of combustion with reason. Ponting was often found bereft of ideas and often scratching his head, wondering where Australia’s next best tactic lay. The Australian team, uncharacteristically, allowed the Indians to walk all over them and leave alone their hollow words of sledging, their performance was more hollow than has been witnessed in recent months from them.
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Ponting’s problems with the over rates stem frequently from his animated discussions with his bowlers, a problem that had become cumbersome for the opposition and the viewers when Sachin Tendulkar himself was captain of India. Ponting has often had to employ similar tactics to get away with the rap from the match referee including Perth where he actually used Andrew Symonds along with Michael Clarke. On this occasion, it was the rotation of bowling between Krezja, Clarke and Mike Hussey that allowed India off the hook and a partnership of 108 to build between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh.
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India, whose biggest blunder had come by way of a self inflicted Sachin Tendulkar run out in the final over before tea, meant that India were going in to tea at six down for 252. It appeared anyone’s game at that moment and it was the Australia who clearly had the momentum. It was perhaps really the first team when they truly put the Indians under pressure. As Indian fans murmured prayers hoping that India would not succumb to the sudden Australian pressure and onslaught, Australia removed their strike bowlers and replaced them with innocuous part timers.
Ponting’s previous blemish as captain has been the Ashes defeat of 2005, the only Australia skipper in nearly two decades not to retain the urn. It was another matter that Australia struck right back and regained it.
Slow over rates could have well seen Ponting banned for one Test, the next one involving New Zealand. But now it may well happen with the ignominy of being in the cynosure of the eyes that matter. James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, did not want to sound critical and yet the betrayal in his words was becoming apparent. He stated as much that he wanted a personal moment of communication with Ponting and coach Tim Nielsen order to fathom the tactics employed after tea. While India may have still won the Test, that the Australians actually changed gears so dramatically, one would have thought they had encountered an enticing bookie in the dressing room to go with their tea and biscuits. As far fetched as the idea sounds, not to mention preposterous, such was the margin of deviation between a buoyant Australia before tea and an insipid, run-me-over team that took the field thereafter.
