Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting has expressed his shock over Australia’s loss to India in the last Test match in Brisbane, unable to comprehend that the home team was not good enough to win the series.
With the setbacks that India faced over the past weeks during their tour Down Under, the fact of the matter is that it was not even India’s best team that won the match, he said.
“I’m quite shocked that Australia weren’t quite good enough to win this series. The cold hard facts of it are pretty much that was the India A team that played this Test match and still won,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.
“Considering everything the Indian team has been through in the last five or six weeks, with the captain leaving, all the injuries they have had. They have been through 20 players… (Australia) have been at full-strength, bar Davey (David Warner) missing early on, so it’s really hard to comprehend.”
“It’s probably not even (India’s) second-picked team,” he added.
India won the fourth match at the Gabba by three wickets, chasing down the 328-run target thanks to the exploits of Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Mohammed Siraj.
With Virat Kohli returning to India after the first Test in Adelaide, the visitors were in the backfoot due to a spate of injuries that ruled out the best of the team, including Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari.
However, the Ajinkya Rahane-led side turned their fortunes around with some brilliant and mature performances from the team that on the most part lacked experience, making a spectacular comeback to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Australian soil for the second time in a row.
“They have played really good, tough, hard Test match cricket day-in and day-out. India have won all the big moments in every Test match and Australia have fallen short. That’s been the difference between the two teams,” Ponting further said.
“They have done it really well and they thoroughly deserve to win the series because (of) how resilient they have been.”
Ponting also praised Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur for their performances, adding that the manner in which they played made it look like they have been at this for a long time.
The former captain didn’t hold back his criticism for the home team, adding that Australia were still falling short even while facing India’s net bowlers.
“We gave Australia the benefit of doubt the last time India were here because Warner and (Steve) Smith weren't there. But this time, Australia's at full strength and India are on the bones of their squad—they are playing net bowlers in Test matches and they are still winning. That’s the worry for Australia.
“We’re probably digging deeper than even an Indian A team and they have still been good enough to win two Test matches here in Australia, and good enough to win one in Brisbane, which just doesn’t happen,” Ponting said.
