Brisbane: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting felt the Tim Paine-led Australia lacked aggression on Day 3 of India vs Australia 4th Test in Brisbane, while lauding the determination and fighting spirit shown by Team India on Sunday (January 17). He also admired the discipline and application of India youngsters Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur for their brilliant batting effort, that kept India alive in the fourth Test in Brisbane on day 3.
“I don’t think they were aggressive enough, didn’t bowl enough short balls. They let the Indian batsmen be way too comfortable at the crease. They almost bowled the way those batsmen would have wanted them to bowl,” Ponting was quoted as saying to Cricket.com.au.
“It wasn’t until we saw a bit of a barrage from (Mitchell) Starc and even when Shardul got out (bowled by Pat Cummins), it was no surprise it was a ball after a bouncer. I don’t think the Aussies were anywhere near aggressive enough.” said the legendary batsman.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle for them, the wicket’s been flat, there hasn’t been any sideways movement and certainly no swing. And with India we see that they just keep fighting. They’ve been up for the battle and the contest right the way through this series so far. Especially after Adelaide, they’ve been able to produce what they’ve needed to in big moments from there on in.”
Washington (62) and Shardul (67) led a splendid lower-order fightback after India were reduced to 186 for 6 in reply to Australia’s 369. The duo stitched 123-run partnership for the seventh wicket. Lauding their performance Ponting said,
“With India, we see that they just keep fighting. They’ve been up for the battle and the contest right the way through this series so far…The batsmanship has been a real standout and their application and concentration. They didn’t throw it away. Shardul at the end went for a shot that probably wasn’t quite on but before that there wasn’t many false shots at all played by either of them.”
Sundar and Thakur’s 123-run partnership also happens to be the third-highest 100 plus seventh-wicket partnership for India in Australia after Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja’s 204 in Sydney 2018-2019 and 132 by Vijay Hazare and Hemu Adhikari in Adelaide 1947-48.
