Indian Premier League Observer

Ricky Ponting’s reign over the Australian cricket team has come under flak, with critics and some wellwishers urging him to resist the $400,000 IPL lure and take a break to get back into cricket afresh after regaining his form.

Cricket writer Robert Craddock wrote in The Daily Telegraph that the last thing Ricky Ponting, the Australian Captain, needed now was more cricket. Robert Craddock goes a step ahead and urged Ricky Ponting to “tear away” the IPL contract to get what he describes as peace of mind.

Ricky Ponting scored only 191 runs from 10 innings in the recently concluded Commonwealth Bank series, which India bagged defeating Aussies 2-0 in a best of three final. Ricky Ponting struggled against Indian bowlers, especially lanky pacer Ishant Sharma, and averaged just 19.10.

The sad part is that of his 191 runs, 124 came in an innings and the rest 67 came in 9 innings, a pointer to his miserable form in the crucial No 3 slot. Ricky Ponting himself has taken the responsibility for the Australian team’s failure, despite his impressive Test record , which is about to touch more than 10,000 runs. Ricky Ponting currently has 9778 runs at an average of 58.53, which includes 34 hundreds.

India’s two consecutive wins over Aussies also saw Sachin Tendulkar displacing Ricky Ponting as the no. 1 batsman in the LG ICC world rankings.

As a captain, Ricky Ponting has won 31 matches out of 41, again an impressive record.
Ricky Ponting’s woes also come in the form of the age factor of the team. India had just Sachin Tendulkar above 30, but Australia had only three under the age of thirty.