Ricky Ponting with the Australian cricket team in India in 2008–09 media analyst Peter Roebuck wrote in "The Sydney Morning Herald" and "The Age", "In one of the most baffling displays of captaincy seen in the long and proud history of Australian cricket, Ricky Ponting has denied his side a deserved chance of securing a famous victory. Rather than pressing home an advantage secured by dint of outstanding swing bowling and inspired spin in a fraught and fascinating afternoon session, the Australian captain preferred to use part-timers. Presumably, it was an attempt to improve an ailing over rate. Perhaps he was worried about missing the next match. Both issues pale into
Ricky Ponting was dismissed all five times by Harbhajan Singh. Ponting had a habit of instinctively rocking onto the front foot and thrusting his wrists at Harbhajan's deliveries and was frequently caught in the bat pad positions because of this. Despite this recent run of poor scores, Ponting was promoted to the key No. 3 position in the Australian batting order at the expense of the dropped Justin Langer, while Damien Martyn took Ponting's former spot at No. 6, for the very next Test series, the 2001 Ashes tour of England. Ponting began the series poorly, scoring 11, 14, 4, 14 and