Michael Slater urges Ricky Ponting to bid adieu to Test cricket
Former Australian cricketer Michael Slater has urged former teammate Ricky Ponting to retire from Test cricket before they take on England in the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney on 3 January 2011.
Ricky Ponting has become the first Australian captain in more than a century to lose the Ashes thrice.
Slater said he was expecting the 36-year-old Australian captain to make a call for retirement after the ICC World Cup 2011 final in April next year but the disappointment attached with becoming part of an unwanted piece of Ashes captaincy history might make
him quit the Test cricket at Sydney Cricket Ground next week.
The 40-year-old former batsman of Australia continued his analysis saying it was a big series and has not worked out so it will obviously put some extra pressure on Ponting.
Ponting has only averaged 16 runs per innings in the series so far and could only score an aggregate of 30 runs in the fourth Test.
Slater, who also commentates for various cricket channels, felt it would take couple of days for Ponting to get back to normal life. Slater at the same time made it clear that he has not received any hint from Ponting regarding his retirement. He said, “Only
he knows what he's really thinking."
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 lost the fourth Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by an innings and 157 runs. Tim Bresnan was the star bowler for England and finished with 4 wickets to wrap up Australia on the fourth day of the match.
The fifth Test at Sydney Cricket Ground will be a dead rubber as England have now taken an unassailable 2-1 lead in the series. They have won the coveted urn in Australia after more than two decades.
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