Australian Cricket Players – Ricky Ponting, a return to aggression.
Posted by auscrickfan on November 26, 2008
Australian Cricket Players: Ricky Ponting – Return to aggression.
In reflection of the first test one of the most exciting outcomes was Ricky Ponting’s willingness to continually choose the aggressive option over the defensive tactics used in India. Why? Well, firstly, aggression ensures the opposition has to concentrate every moment of the whole test – or else find themselves in a position that is hard to dig themselves out of. Second, it makes for much more exciting cricket. Third, Australian bowlers and fielders seem to feel much more at home when they are allowed to bowl and field for wickets – it gives them a sense of being in control as opposed to waiting for things to happen.
Ponting’s behavior is exciting for a few reasons, he was willing to back all of his players. The fact that they performed for him, is obviously, going to be partially down to the pitch and the support of a home crowd. However, you can’t have players achieve these kind of results (a win early on the fourth day) without controlled aggression backed up by skill of the players. More importantly, when the Kiwi’s were showing a bit of fight, Ricky Ponting didn’t seem to hesitate to keep the field in a mostly aggressive posture. Seemingly, he refused to revert to pure run saving fields set in India. I hope time will tell that Punter has learnt a lesson from his tour of India and forgets the defensive tactics used there.
Probably the most important factor of his return to aggression is that it enables the inexperienced in the team feel their captain is behind them and willing them to bowl naturally and aggressively. This will allow them to feel more comfortable and more secure.
Aggression has been a part of Australian Cricket for decades and we can only hope that Ponting will continue to set this example against the higher ranked South African cricket team later on in the summer.
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