Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting feels that India’s historic win in the first test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy and highlighted that despite the absence of key players India was able to pick the win.
Although India has had similar wins in the past, including the famous victory in Gabba in 2021 which men in Blues secured a win, Ponting said that the Australian captain had his reasons to highlight Perth’s win.
“It’ll go down, I’m sure, as one of India’s greatest-ever Test match wins, and it probably should.”
“With the players down that they had… Rohit (Sharma), not there, (Shubman) Gill, not there and (Mohammed) Shami not there… It’s an amazing win,” said Ponting.
While speaking to media during the sidelines of IPL 2025 auction, “After getting bowled out for 150, it was a bit, yeah, a shock win. And they’ve won by the best part of 300 runs. So it’s an incredible turnaround,” told Ricky Ponting.
Ponting analysed why India held upper advantage throughout the test and cited the importance of the toss.
“Winning the toss was a big advantage. I said that at the time. The record is that the team that won (at the Optus Stadium) batted first. Every time.”
Stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah chose to bat and team folded for 150 runs in 50 overs. But they fought back to claim seven wickets on the first day with Bumrah scalping four of them.
“Oh, no doubt, Bumrah led the way. The way he bowled at the start of the first innings was incredible. You know, with Shami not being there, he had to stand up and lead the way. And being the captain, he did it. He did it on field with his leadership, and he did it with the ball in hand.
“Obviously, Virat (Kohli, who scored an unbeaten century) had to do what he did in the second innings and he set the game up along with (Yashasvi) Jaiswal.”
“But I think their whole bowling group stood up late on Day One. The second half of the first day was probably where the game changed.”
India’s win was special one after a 0-3 shocking defeat against New Zealand at home. Pointing opined that India wouldn’t have faced such humiliation if the wickets in that series were good and convinced that they are a better side overseas than at home.
“One point I did make, and I think it’s really true. I’m not sure how much (this) has been spoken about here, but I think Indian batsmen now play better away from home than they play at home.”
“I think they’re better players of fast bowling now than they are of spin bowling. And I think that’s been proven this (last) week.”
“To be able to go to Perth, have a young kid like Jaiswal make 100 (161) on that wicket, even Nitish Reddy being able to make 40 (41) in the first innings…”
“I think they (India) play better on those wickets than they do on the slow spinning tracks that they’ve been getting at home. I mean, there’s no way in the world New Zealand would have beaten them on good wickets.”
Ponting had predicted that BGT would end with 3-1 and stand by that prediction.
“No, I have not changed my view. I’ll stay with that. India won the first (Test). I said 3-1 at the start. Yes, I’ll stick with it. But it’s a long way back. The Aussies have now got a fair bit of work to do,” he concluded.
The second match of the Australia tests will begin on December 06 at Adelaide Oval.
