After two days of the ICC World Test Championship Final, Ricky Ponting, a member of the ICC Hall of Fame, has highlighted the crucial session during which he believes India did it wrong. However, Ponting is excited by fast bowler Mohammed Siraj’s approach and abilities.
India has had a difficult time adapting to the unpredictable pitch and tricky English conditions at The Oval, while Australia has dominated the majority of the opening two days.
Australia’s all-time great Ricky Ponting thinks India’s Rohit Sharma made a mistake by electing to bat first, but he also claims that Sharma did not get the help he needed from his four-seamers.
They had to bowl fuller and get the ball driven back down the ground due to the conditions of the wicket, the wind, and the new Duke’s ball.
This was a really impressive outcome for Australia considering they needed to be four or five behind at lunch.
According to Ponting, right before the toss on Wednesday, India’s captain, Rohit, overheard head coach Rahul Dravid in a lengthy conversation with the team.
I overheard Rahul Dravid and Rohit discussing the toss strategy for quite some time yesterday morning, and they were both out in the middle.
They probably should have used all four of their seamers if they’d chosen to bowl first. You can say it hasn’t paid off so far, but there’s still a long way to go, so it’s premature to write it off just yet.
Although India’s tactics on the first day were flawed, Ponting praised their second-day comeback when they scored 142/7 to offer themselves a chance of winning.
India’s improved success with the ball on the second day in south London can be largely attributed to the right-armer Siraj, who took four wickets while enjoying the challenge of bowling to Australia’s formidable batting lineup.
Siraj bombarded Australia’s plethora of quality batsmen with short-pitched deliveries and engaged in a few mid-pitch staring competitions, causing Ponting to crack a wide grin.
Ponting remarked of Siraj, “I loved seeing that and he looks like the ultimate competitor.”
You need individuals like that on your side when things aren’t going well, even if he does get carried away and go a little bit over the top sometimes.
What I enjoyed about him was that his pace didn’t slow down at all throughout the entire innings, and he was the one who declared, “I’m the guy who’s going to turn things around.”
His mood was stellar since “his pace was hovering around that 86 or 87 miles per hour mark from the first ball yesterday morning until late this afternoon.”
