As he prepared for tomorrow’s fourth Test at Adelaide Oval, Indian spin maestro Harbhajan Singh would have been pleased to hear that he has succeeded in forcing Australian captain Ricky Ponting to second guess himself.
Without compare as the world’s best batsman for the past few years, Ponting has this series floundered against the teasing qualities of Harbhajan, falling to him in every innings they have faced one another.
Though he was dropped for the third Test in Perth due to widespread expectation of a pace biased pitch, Harbhajan did not lose much momentum after seamer Ishant Sharma’s success in keeping Ponting’s scores – and confidence – at less than optimum level.
Today Ponting indicated he had needed to find time to re-assess his approach to Harbhajan, particularly across the first few moments of his innings, as the “Turbanator” has frequently defeated him first ball.
“I’ve analysed things a little bit,” Ponting admitted.
“I’m not a huge analyst of things that have happened in the past but I’ll sit down, I have already this week with the likelihood of him coming back in and just have a think about how I’m going to play him.
“I think a couple of times this series he got me out either first or second ball so I haven’t really had a chance to try and impose myself on him too much there.
“Tomorrow, or whenever it is, if I get an opportunity against him if he plays then hopefully I will be able to get on top and stay on top for the course of the game.”
India are yet to finalise their attack for the final Test, but are considering adding Harbhajan at the expense of opener Wasim Jaffer.
Ponting said Australia expected the off-spinner to play.
Indian captain Anil Kumble readily agreed that his team’s mastery of Ponting had surprised everyone, including the touring party, and said that it had been a key plank in their bowling success.
“He definitely is one of the key members and that success has let us get into their middle order sooner than what we expected, so in that sense yes (it has surprised us),” Kumble said.
“It doesn’t matter who the bowler is, if he can get Ricky out quickly that will be great for us.
“He’s definitely a key batsman for the Aussies and as long as we can keep that going we’ll be really happy.”
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