Australia must put India loss behind them, Ponting says

Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting Tuesday said his team had to put their loss to India behind them as quickly as possible, as he defended his captaincy during the series.

Australia’s 2-0 loss to India has raised concerns that the world champions’ dominance of the game is fading, particularly after the retirement of the likes of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist. But Ponting said the team was motivated to move on from the India series and he was confident of winning this summer’s six Tests against New Zealand and South Africa.

“Just seeing the look on some of the guys’ faces on the plane, there is genuine excitement about moving on from the Indian series,” Ponting said on arriving back in Sydney late Tuesday.

“It’s important we put that series behind us as quickly as we can and we start focussing on whatever positives there were out of the Indian series and start looking ahead to New Zealand and South Africa in Australia.

“I’ve got total confidence that we can bounce back and that we can win every Test we play in Australia this year.”

Australia were outplayed in every aspect in India, with Ponting coming under intense criticism for his handling of the deciding fourth Test in Nagpur, with commentators suggesting he was too worried about being penalised for a slow over rate to press for victory.

At a press conference at Sydney Airport, Ponting stood by his call to use part-time bowlers on the fourth day to speed up the over rate rather than use his strike bowlers at a crucial point in the game when Australia had a chance of victory.

“I still feel the decisions I made weren’t negative at all, I’ve had an opportunity to sit back over the last couple of days and think about those decisions I made there and then,” Ponting said.

“Even talking to other players, I’m very comfortable with the decision that I made,” he told reporters at Sydney Airport. “I will continue to be a ruthless captain and a ruthless player and I expect all my other teammates are in exactly the same boat.

“And if they’re not now, having lost a Test series in India 2-0, we have to look around for some other guys.”

The Tasmanian predicted his team would play “some of the best Test cricket we’ve seen for a while” during the summer series Down Under but acknowledged they had to improve their game.

SYDNEY, Wednesday, AFP