Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting feels India’s fearlessness while playing on the big stage was the biggest reason behind their Test series wins in the last two tours in Australia. Despite playing bilateral Test series against Australia since the late 1940s, India had never won in Australia for over 70 years. However, they bounced back in their previous two tours of Australia in 2018/19 and 2020/21 with back-to-back 2-1 series wins as well.
Speaking on Sky Sports as quoted by Sporting News, Ponting said, “They won a game at the Gabba, which just doesn’t happen. I think their batsmen adapt to overseas batting conditions very well. I don’t think they’re as daunted by the Gabba or the Optus Oval, as they maybe once were. Maybe it is a selection thing, or they just don’t fear the big stage anymore,” said Ponting.
ALSO READ: Hardik Pandya shares happiness after winning back the love of fans
“For the last 10 years being around the IPL, I’ve noticed that a lot of the young guys [don’t fear the big stage anymore] as the IPL is high-pressure, it is like a World Cup for them. Their batsmen are all very aggressive stroke-making players. They are not scared of failing,” he further added.
However, India has won the previous four bilateral Test series against Australia with their last series defeat coming in the 2014/15 tour as well. Ricky Ponting also credited India’s strong captaincy starting with Virat Kohli from the 2014/15 Australian tour for their turnaround in overseas Tests as well. Kohli led India to their first-ever Test series win in Australia in the 2018/19 tour. He was also the captain to start their 2020/21 series down under but later he left home for personal reasons after the first Test as well.
ALSO READ: “Shubman’s captaincy is very good” – Ravi Bishnoi on Shubman Gill
“Their fast-bowling depth is great. The leadership in the last 6-7 years has been strong, going back to Kohli’s start of captaincy, played a bigrole in turning the cricket around and Dravid has continued the same in the recent four years. The influence of someone like that [Kohli] around a team would be great and they’ve got star players,” concluded Ricky Ponting.
