Ponting lavishes praise on Ishant

Australian captain Ricky Ponting gave a thumbs up to young paceman Ishant Sharma, saying the Indian speedster produced “some of the better bowling I have faced in Test cricket.”

“Ishant has been the standout young player in the Indian set up through the tour. Everybody has spoken about him. At different times he has bowled very good spells. The spell he bowled to me in Perth on the last day was some of the better bowling I have faced in Test cricket,” Ponting said.

The Aussie skipper said it would be interesting to watch how the towering Delhi pacer and other youngsters in the Indian team develop over the next few years.

“He’s (Ishant) someone who’s going to be around for a while and play a lot of cricket. It’s something I have always said about the Indian team: they always seem to produce good young players. Let’s see how they develop over the next few years,” he said.

Ponting lamented that the controversies during the tour showed him and his leadership in poor light.

In bad light

“Probably yes. I think a few Australian players and me too (were shown in bad light). I think a lot of it from me was really unavoidable. I was not involved in any of those stuff that happened. I was supposed to do captaining my side but with the Harbhajan incident somehow it came out looking badly. I don’t think I could handle things any differently or any better,” he said.

Ponting, however, denied that his team’s performance was affected due to the off-field incidents or that Harbhajan was spurred to do better.

“I don’t think so it happened. If things get tough, you genuinely play a lot more better cricket and I think he (Harbhajan) tried to play exactly the same way (he performs usually).

News Source : Samachar