Ricky Ponting is bracing himself for a backlash after leading Australia to an Ashes series loss in England for a second time – but it is unlikely to come from his Cricket Australia superiors.
Due to arrive back in Sydney on Wednesday evening, he is certain to face questions over his captaincy after becoming the first Australian skipper in more than a century to surrender the Ashes twice in England.
Ponting said he was prepared to cop criticism.
“I don’t really know what to expect when I get back,” he said.
“Hopefully most of the questions (come) from journalists, hopefully not from (Cricket Australia) people above.
“But we’ll see.”
The fifth Test loss by 197 runs at The Oval not only handed England a 2-1 series win, it also meant that Australia have lost three of their last five Test series and now slip from No.1 to No.4 in the Test rankings behind new leader South Africa, Sri Lanka and India.
Ponting said there was no hiding from his rebuilding side’s fall from the giddy heights of the 2006/07 Ashes series clean sweep at home.
“Leaders are always looked upon on their results,” he said.
“Unfortunately for me and the rest of the guys we haven’t got the results we would have liked.”
Despite his team’s Ashes loss to what is generally rated a fairly mediocre England side, it is unlikely Ponting will lose the captaincy.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and selection chairman Andrew Hilditch formed a united front behind Ponting, putting defeat down to inexperience and a handful of bad hours rather than any fundamental flaw in leadership.
“I don’t think we’re under any illusions as to where this team’s at. We’re definitely in a rebuilding phase after losing some of the best players to ever play cricket for Australia,” Sutherland said in Melbourne.
“What you get with a young and relatively inexperienced team is some ebbs and flows in performance.”
Australia have enjoyed success from enormous stability at the top in the last quarter of a century with only four full-time captains appointed – Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ponting.
There is the realisation that the 2009 squad is far from the all but invincible Australian sides of the recent past and the other leadership candidates don’t make overwhelming cases, yet.
Not that Ponting has done a perfect job.
Australia’s failure to remove England’s last pair of Monty Panesar and James Anderson in 69 balls on the final day of the first Test in Cardiff will haunt him.
The skipper’s move to use spinners to scrape in more overs at the death was regrettable considering how uncomfortable the quicks could have made No.11 Panesar.
The fact that Australia dominated the series so heavily in statistical terms is expected to ease calls for a mass clean out.
The tourists had six of the top seven run-scorers, recorded eight centuries to two and had the three leading wicket-takers in the series.
Hilditch’s disbelief at the result was plain.
“I’m feeling gutted and in some disbelief over the last couple of days, the traditional signs of who’s going to win a Test series are all there and it should have been Australia,” he said in Adelaide.
“We had six of the top seven batsmen, 10 centuries, eight of them Australian, the three leading bowlers in the series were all Australian. Everything indicates that we dominated the Test series.
“We lost the Test series in the last hour in Cardiff when we should have won. I thought at the time it was going to hurt us, which it did.”
The only player who may have ended his career is seamer Stuart Clark following the soon-to-be 34-year-old’s meek offerings at The Oval.
The national selectors are also certain to come under pressure following their blunder of not picking Australia’s only specialist spinner Nathan Hauritz on the dustbowl at The Oval.
Ponting admitted the prospect of returning to England for the 2013 Ashes series had crossed his mind after being forced to watch the home side celebrate another win on home soil at The Oval.
“We’ll see how I’m going in four years,” said Ponting, 34.
“Hopefully another chance to play another Ashes series back in Australia, but it would be nice, with everything I’ve done in my career and the games I’ve played, to have some good memories from this ground.
“I might have to come back next time and find some.”
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