India let themselves down in first hour of Day 1:Ricky Ponting

NEW DELHI: As India seemed to struggle against a dominant Australia in the first two days of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final at The Oval, London, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has expressed his belief that India let themselves down in the first hour of the opening day of the one-off Test.

“I think where they let themselves down was in the first hour yesterday and bowling too short. With the wicket conditions, the overhead conditions they had and the brand-new Dukes ball, they had to bowl fuller and get the ball driven back down the ground,” Ponting told the ICC.

“They needed to have Australia four or five down at lunch and they only had them two down which was a pretty good result (for Australia),” he added.

Ponting said that moments before the toss, he noticed a deep discussion between India’s head coach Rahul Dravid and the team’s captain.

India left out Ravi Ashwin from the playing XI and instead fielded a pace-heavy bowling attack. Unfortunately, this strategy did not yield the desired results in the first innings as Travis Head and Steve Smith notched up centuries, forging an impressive 285-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

“I know the captain wears the brunt of it (criticism), b’t I know it’s not only his decision,” Ponting noted.

“I saw Rahul Dravid and him out (Rohit) in the middle yesterday morning and they had a long discussion about what they wanted to do at the toss.”

“If they wanted to bowl first I think they had to play the four seamers. So far you would say it hasn’t paid off - but there is a long way to go and we ‘robably shouldn’t be too quick to judge,” he said.

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