Ricky Ponting: "Punter" under pressure

Profiles / Andrew Hughes / 19 November 2008 / Leave a comment

A Series defeat is likely to put any Australian Test cricket captain under pressure but there may be further questions asked about some of his decision-making, particularly in the latter stages of the Series. His captaincy in the next few months will be under serious scrutiny, says Andrew Hughes.

There has been much talk of the transition that Australian cricket is going through in the post-Warne, post-McGrath, post-Gilchrist era. Such transitions can sometimes involve defeat in the short-term whilst you rebuild, but defeat is not something that Australian cricket is used to dealing with. The loss of the Border Gavaskar Trophy has been a painful episode and when in pain, there is a tendency to lash out wildly.

This time it is Ricky Ponting who has been feeling the heat, with his tactics on the fourth evening of the final Test acting as a lightning conductor for Aussie frustration that they are no longer as good at Test cricket as they used to be.

For sure, the fact that he allowed over-rates to enter into his thought process, with the match and the series in the balance was a mistake, even if only in PR terms. Australian cricket teams do not pussyfoot, they go for the jugular and to be seen to be in two minds at such a critical juncture was enough to provoke fits of outrage in commentary boxes, pressrooms and no doubt bars across the nation.

But let's be realistic. It's far from certain that, had Ponting turned to Watson, Lee or Johnson, the result would have been any different. We should not forget that this was the pace attack that had taken its wickets at forty-five runs apiece up till that point. And even if they had finished off the tail, Australia would still have been required to set a new record for run-chases in India. There are far too many ifs there to justify the opprobrium being poured down on Ponting's head.

And if you take the series as a whole, you could point to any number of things that went wrong, none of which were down to the captain. For example, it was not Ponting's fault that the selectors opted to go into the series with no specialist spinner and did not turn to Jason Krejza until the Third Test. Nor could Ponting be blamed for the inability of the coaching staff to spot that the Indians would be using reverse swing much earlier than usual and to adjust accordingly. And you can hardly criticise Punter for his team's chronically poor ground fielding or the fact that he lost three tosses in a row.

The fundamental reason for the defeat was that India was the better team. They played solid, intelligent Test cricket and had game plans they could put into operation. By contrast, the Australians had a batting line-up that lacked punch and a misfiring, unfit bowling attack, light on Test experience in India. In pretty much every position, the home side had the better players. The loss of the Border Gavaskar Trophy was as classic a demonstration as you will ever see of the tenet that a captain is only as good as his team.

In fact, now that the greats have gone, we can see just how good a captain Ponting is... The impression has been that he lacks Mark Taylor's instincts and man-management skills or Steve Waugh's ruthlessness. But he has at least proven to be durable. He fought back after 2005 to reclaim the Ashes in glorious style and he successfully brazened out last winter's furore over the Sydney Test.

The reluctance of selectors to promote Michael Clarke yet, not to mention the possibility of losing Ponting's ability with the bat means that it is unlikely that he will be axed in the immediate future. But there is no doubt he has a fight on his hands, of the kind that Taylor or Waugh never had to face, if he is to steer his team through this transition.

Of course, there are exceptions, emergencies that override every other consideration and require the captain's immediate removal. One such crisis would be a series defeat at home to New Zealand. According to the latest Betfair prices though, such an eventuality is unforeseeable. The Aussies are [1.38] to win the First Test starting on Thursday, with Daniel Vettori's brave but outgunned tourists available at [15.5]