Ricky Ponting at the lowest ebb of his captaining career
Headingley was apparently the last Test match for Ricky Ponting in England as his side lost to Pakistan for the first time in 15 years. Ponting however, hasn’t ruled out the possibility of returning to England once again and win the Ashes on English soil in the future.
Last September, when Australia lost the Ashes to Andrew Strauss and his men, Ponting was confident of making a comeback to play the Ashes in 2013 on English soil. One year later and after a series of defeats in England, plans are changing and Ponting is not that certain whether he will make it till 2013 or not. Keeping in mind Australia’s board professionalism, his future is without any doubt uncertain.
England as a cricketing host has been cruel for Ponting. His status has been reduced to a mere batsman in England as he has failed miserably as a captain. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 has won only three of their 12 Tests in Britain under Ponting's captaincy. Defeat at the hands of the young and inexperienced Pakistani side in Headingley has dashed all hopes for Ponting to win a series in England as a leader.
In 2013, Ponting will be 38 years of age and there is little chance that he will be leading his team against England. But as far as his batting is concerned, he is still a rock solid player. He added another achievement to his glorious batting career when he only became the second batsmen to score 12,000 runs in Test cricket. The first one to achieve this feat was Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar.
Talking to reporters about his chance to play again in England, he said, “I honestly don't know [if I'll play in England again]. It's all going to be down to how well I play. I love playing for Australia. I cherish every moment that I have to captain the side and represent my country. If I get back here in a couple of years time then so be it, but if I'm not good enough then there's nothing I can do about that.”
Ponting has also been criticized by pundits for playing ultra-attackingly. His pull shot, which was once his main weapon has let him down on a number of occasions. While commenting on his attacking approach, the three-time World Champion said, “I don't think I played any more defensively than normal," he said. "Over the years I've always had that fairly aggressive intent to go out there and put it back on the bowlers. I still felt I had that in the second innings but they bowled pretty well."
Just like Ponting or the Australian team in general, Mitchell Johnson, who was once the star of Australia’s bowling is struggling to find form. His recent performances in England were worse than his performances in the last Ashes series. He took a total of three wickets at 72.33 in two Tests against Pakistan. With Australia’s top wicket-taker performing in such manner, it is not surprising that Australia lost to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755. Answering a question regarding the poor form of Johnson, Ponting said, “There's endless work that's always done with Troy and the fast bowlers. Whether it be what you can see at our warm-up or training, or more often than not back in the change-rooms looking at footage and looking at things they've done well or maybe not done so well through the course of the game.” He further added, “We all want to play well all the time, but unfortunately that's not the way this game works. If you're going to win Test matches, you have to have five or six or seven of your guys playing well each game, and we probably didn't have that in this particular Test match.”
Australia needs to bring their house in order if they want to regain the Ashes this year. Or else, Ponting can become the first Australian captain in many decades to lose the Ashes Series at home.
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