In a shock transfer, India opted to bowl within the Ultimate however then couldn’t make the most of the situations as Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) tons took Australia to a formidable first innings rating.
Ponting felt the Indian bowlers ought to have seemed to bowl fuller lengths as a substitute of bowling brief within the first session on Day 1.
“I believe the place they let themselves down was within the first hour yesterday and bowling too brief. With the wicket situations, the overhead situations they’d and the model new Dukes ball, they needed to bowl fuller and get the ball pushed again down the bottom,” the previous Australia skipper informed ICC.
“They wanted to have Australia 4 or 5 down at lunch they usually solely had them two down which was a fairly good outcome (for Australia),” mentioned Ponting, recalling the primary session on the opening day, which thus far has been the very best when it comes to help to quick bowlers.
Ponting nevertheless praised pacer Mohammed Siraj for his tenacity, calling him the “final competitor”. Siraj (4/108) bowled his finest however the different India couldn’t cease Australia from amassing 469.
Siraj was maybe the one vivid spot for India with the ball as he accounted for Usman Khawaja (0), Head, Pat Cummins (9) and Nathan Lyon (9) to carry up his 50 wickets in Take a look at cricket.
“I cherished seeing that and he appears to be like like the last word competitor. Perhaps typically he will get carried away and goes slightly bit excessive, however you want these guys in your facet when issues aren’t going nicely,” Ponting mentioned.
The correct-arm bowler attacked Australia with brief pitch deliveries and in addition confirmed much-needed aggression on the sector, which inspired Ponting.
“He was the one immediately (Thursday) who mentioned I’m going to be the man that’s going to show issues round and what I cherished was that his tempo did not drop in any respect throughout the entire innings.
“From the primary ball yesterday morning till late this afternoon, his tempo was hovering round that 86 or 87-mile and hour mark and that claims so much about an excellent angle.”
With out stepping into the dialogue of whether or not India ought to have performed Ravichnadran Ashwin within the WTC remaining, Ponting mentioned India’s determination to play 4 seamers would possibly pay its dividends later within the recreation.
“I do know the captain wears the brunt of it (criticism), however I do know it isn’t solely his determination. I noticed Rahul Dravid and him (Rohit Sharma) out within the center yesterday morning they usually had an extended dialogue about what they needed to do on the toss.” Ponting mentioned.
“In the event that they needed to bowl first I believe they needed to play the 4 seamers. Thus far you’d say it hasn’t paid off — however there’s a lengthy solution to go and we in all probability should not be too fast to guage,” he added.
(With inputs from PTI)