Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has said that the Indian team had been outplayed by Australia in the ongoing WTC final as they didn’t prepare well for the summit clash at the Oval as they had come straight after playing IPL 2023 for two months.
India was rocked by a strong Australian batting performance led by centuries from Travis Head and Steve Smith, who joined forces to add 285 runs for the fifth wicket and propel their side’s score to 469 in the first innings.
Indian batting let them down as the top four in Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli failed to go past the 20-run mark and it was only due to Ajinkya Rahane’s 89 and his 71-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja (48) and then a 109-run partnership with Shardul Thakur (51) helped India to 296.
It was enough to give the Australian outfit a 173-run lead at The Oval, leaving India staring down the barrel of another WTC final loss.
“I think they have been outplayed so far. Their preparation wasn’t probably ideal coming into a one-off Test what with all their players being at the IPL. You know, few of the Australian boys were there. Few of the Australian boys hadn’t done anything for three months either,” Ponting told ICC.
Ponting commented on the lack of match practice and conditioning for the Indian bowlers throughout the IPL, a short-form competition, for which Shardul and Umesh were injured and not playing in large parts.
“I had a chat with Shardul this morning, he said he’s started to feel the pinch because he has not been able to get enough bowling. The overs that he has bowled in a day and a half, he bowled in the whole of IPL,” he added.
Mohammad Siraj picked 4 wickets, while Mohammad Shami and Shardul Thakur took two scalps each for India.
If You Asked Rahane, He Wouldn’t Have Been Picked For This Match Without The IPL: Ricky Ponting
Ponting was also critical of the Indian batter’s performances in the WTC final as only Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur, and Ravindra Jadeja could manage to withstand the Australian bowling attack.
“If you ask Virat, he would say that it’s been perfect for him because he has got all sorts of runs. If you asked Rahane, he wouldn’t have been picked for this match without the IPL. So it’s going to work both ways,” Ponting said.
But on the same thought, Ponting mentioned that Australians have looked slightly off-color, with uncharacteristic errors with the ball in hand and on the field.
“I sort of underlined coming into this game what was the best preparation; was it out and playing pretty high-quality competitive cricket in the IPL or was it better off being at home and resting up and doing a bit of non-competitive training. So far it’s shown that both teams have been a bit rusty,” he added.