London, July 22: Former coach Duncan Fletcher believes that Ricky Ponting’s golden days as skipper were over long back when Australia
suffered a series of retirements from their players who never needed a captain and insisted that the Tasmanian was under severe pressure.
He said it were the Australians who began the war of words before the Ashes series began but with a loss at Lord’s in the second Test, the pressure has shifted to Ponting, whose opposite number Andrew Strauss has led England exceptionally well.
”As I’ve said before Ponting was never really under pressure when he had those greats in his bowling attack, because his players captained themselves. Now his prickly side is coming out, both in Cardiff and again at Lord’s,” pointed England’s 2005 Ashes winning coach.
”It says a lot about the pressure the England captain is generally under when he can have his decisions questioned for most of the game and still come away with a big win over Australia.
”This was a huge match for Andrew Strauss, both as a batsman and a leader, and it just confirms what I’ve always believed: talent will only get you so far, but character will get you further. We kept hearing from these Australians before the series started what a good side they were, but there’s only one captain under pressure at the moment and it isn’t Strauss,” Fletcher wrote in his column for ‘The Guardian’.
The former Zimbabwean skipper also came in support of Strauss’ much-criticised decision of not enforcing the follow-on after Australia’s first innings at Lord’s.
He claimed that if Australia had managed to take a lead in excess of 200, England would have been under tremendous pressure to score the target on the last day of the match.
”People criticised his decision not to enforce the follow-on on Saturday morning, but they don’t seem to realise the follow-on is over-rated in the modern game. ”Sides bat deeper now, pitches are flatter and more games are back to back. If Australia had batted third, a tired England side might have been chasing 200 on the last day, with all the pressure that comes with fourth-innings runchases. ”Strauss did the correct thing in all but batting Australia out of the game,’ he wrote.
Fletcher also noted that Andrew Flintoff’s decision to retire from Test cricket
may have spurred him to sign off on a winning note.
”As for Strauss, he will be delighted that Flintoff chipped in with that long-overdue five-wicket haul. England have been looking for him to perform in Tests for some time, and it looks like his decision to retire from Tests has freed him up to a degree. I just hope his body stands up to the rigours of back-to-back games,” he added.
—-Agencies