Mohammed Siraj very competitive but India should have bowled full length: Ponting
London. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels India have done themselves a disservice by not bowling full lengths in the World Test Championship final even as he praised fast bowler Mohammad Siraj for being extremely competitive. Siraj took four wickets for 108 runs but apart from him no other bowler could stop Australia from scoring 469 runs in the first innings. Ponting told the ICC, “Siraj is very competitive. Sometimes he gets carried away with emotions but when the conditions are not favourable, then such players are needed in the team.
He said, “From the first ball yesterday morning till the second afternoon, he was bowling at 86 or 87 miles and that shows his attitude.” Ponting said that the Indians should bowl full length balls instead of short pitched balls. It was needed He said, “I think he did his own damage yesterday by bowling short balls in the first hour. They had the new Dukes ball and could have benefited by bowling full lengths. Australia could have lost four to five wickets by lunch.
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He refused to get into the debate whether India should have fielded Ravichandran Ashwin or not but said the decision to field four fast bowlers could pay off for India later. He said, “I know the captain is being criticized for this but it was not his decision alone. I saw Rahul Dravid and Rohit having a long talk yesterday morning. If he decided to bowl first, then he had to go with four fast bowlers. It hasn’t worked so far but there is still a lot of time in the match and the verdict should not be pronounced so soon.
