Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting warned India against producing a rank turner for the fourth and final Test against the Kangaroos, which will be held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad from Thursday, March 9, 2023, as that could backfire on the hosts.
Ponting further suggested Team India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid not to focus on the WTC 2023 final, but rather to win the final Test and series against Australia.
Notably, the Indore pitch was immensely criticised by cricket experts, as 30 wickets had fallen on the first two days of the match before Australia won the game by 9 wickets on the third morning, and the Aussie legend said that it created a sense of panic in the Indian camp.
Ricky Ponting said on the ICC Review: “Having lost the third Test match, the whole series is on the line now. If they had won in Indore, they might have wanted a wicket in the fourth Test a bit similar to what they might get in the UK. With the series on the line, no way in the world they are going to do that. I think this is the Test match result Australia needed in the first Test match.”
He continued, “They needed to sow a few seeds of doubts in the minds of the Indian players and the curators on how they would go about preparing the wickets. I have seen this happen in India before. When they get so focussed on trying to produce really rank turners it could backfire quickly. It had happened when Steven O'Keefe had taken all those wickets.”
Ponting signed off by saying, “So, it is really intriguing to me now as to how they prepare their wicket for the last game knowing that the series is on the line. If I was there I wouldn't be looking too far ahead to the WTC final, they should only be looking at the next five days of Test cricket.”
