CricDigs Blogs

Ponting is smiling a bit after all. The Indian tour hasn’t been most kind on the Australian skipper’s sense of humour. Most of the times he has been caught with the old tongue-in-cheek habit of his. Still the Aussie captain insists that it is the Indian team that is under more pressure to win the test match and that it would be difficult for them to do so with a number of distractions that could derail the team’s focus. He believes this, ignoring that the Aussies are on the verge of losing the test series and even if they draw it, this would be regarded as one of Australia’s worst foreign tours in recent years.
It seems that Ricky is upbeat about the fact that India has lost the services of Gautam Gambhir for the final test match in all probability. That does make some sense but he seems more gung-ho about the problems faced by India. This notwithstanding the fact that Lee, Michael Clarke and Bollinger were missing from the training session because of stomach ailments until Wednesday morning and the rookie, Krejza would be playing in all probability, despite looking very ordinary in the preparatory games. Ponting seems to have ignored the fact that Australia couldn’t dismiss India twice in any of the first three test matches.
The new Indian test captain, MS Dhoni, is however more than confident about his team’s chances. He feels that the retirement of Anil Kumble would only spur on the team to give him a worthwhile farewell gift. Laxman would be more focussed for his 100th test and not distracted, as claimed by some people who can afford to think like Ponting. Dhoni believes that even Ganguly would like to exit on a high which can only be good for the team’s cause. Again, he believes that Bhajji would be more motivated and focussed to take his 300th test scalp and win the match for India. He doesn’t believe that there is any reason to get too emotional or be sidetracked with already-disclosed retirements and records that would be created.