THE AUSTRALIAN CHALLENGE

If the ball swings and seams around, India will struggle in Australia: Ponting

by Cricbuzz Staff • Published on

India's top order had a tough time in England recently. © Getty

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting feels India's top-order could be put to the sword again if conditions in Australia for the Test series later this year can facilitate swing and seam. Ponting based his inference on India's lukewarm batting performance at the just-concluded series in England, that India lost 1-4.

India will be vying for their first-ever Test series win in Australia and Ponting believes spicy tracks will rekindle demons that surfaced in England and keep Australia's proud record against India in home series intact. "If the ball does swing around a lot or seam around a lot then I think India will find it difficult in Australia," Ponting told the Cricket Australia website.

"I think any time we saw India struggle through the England series was when the ball moved. As soon as the ball started to move in the air, or seam, the Indian batsmen will always struggle. It's no different to when Australia go to the subcontinent and the ball spins from day one. We always struggle with that as well."

India, who have failed to win a Test on their last two attempts in Australia, will rely once again on the batting prowess of their captain Virat Kohli, who enjoyed a fabulous run with the bat on those shores in 2014-15 and carried forward his consistent run all the way to the recent trip to England, where he aggregated 593 runs including two hundreds.

But it's Kohli's captaincy and team selection that came under much scrutiny in England. Ponting rushed to the defence of the Indian captain, stating that a lot of on-field captaincy was about instinct and that a major chunk of the leadership role pertained to handling off-field matters.

"I've never sat back and tried to analyse what playing captains do as I know when I was captain on field is about 30 or 40 percent of what you need to be in control of," Ponting said. "The rest of it happens behind closed doors or in the change rooms and quite often back in the hotel when you've got time to yourself.

"Trying to find ways to spend time with your teammates, learn about them inside out and trying to find a way to make them perform better on the field. It's not so much about a bowling change or a field placement as that part of the game is highly overrated as far as I'm concerned. The tactical stuff is normally worked out a few days before the game and then you go with your gut instinct about the game out on the ground once the game starts."

India begin their tour of Australia with a three-match T20I series running from November 21 to 25. They have a 10-day window for preparation thereafter before the start of the first Test in Adelaide on December 6.

© Cricbuzz

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