Singh had a lot of respect for Ponting even though the two were “never friends”
India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has announced that recently retired Australian batsman Ricky Ponting was “one of the top five” batsmen he ever bowled to.
Singh has dismissed Ponting the most times out of all other bowlers, getting him out 10 times in 14 Test matches.
Singh noted that Ponting was a player who commanded respect from his team-mates and opponents since he was just that good.
“Ponting will be in my top five Test batsmen ever against whom I played,” Harbhajan said. “He was the kind of cricketer who could win matches on his own. An outstanding fielder, his body language throughout his career is something we all look up to. He brought so much passion and enthusiasm to the field each time he walked in. That earned him command as a leader and a lot of respect for what he has achieved.”
While Ponting may be one of the greatest batsmen to have ever represented Australia, he had a less than impressive average against India in the subcontinent, with Singh being the main reason behind that.
Ponting, who toured India six times during his 17-year international career, only averaged 26.48 in the country, scoring 662 runs in 25 innings with one century to his name, which came in Bangalore in 2008.
During the 2001 Test series, Singh was all over Ponting, dismissing him during all three Tests and the Australian great could only muster a meagre 17 runs from five innings.
Singh believes that Ponting’s poor record in India can be attributed more towards his mental concentration, rather than his shot selection.
“Before that 2001 Border-Gavaskar Trophy where I got him in all the three Tests, I had got the better of Ponting in the first warm-up match when he went for a drive and was caught at short mid-wicket,” Singh said. “Wherever, whenever we played, I managed to get his wicket by bowling decent balls. I feel when you get out to one particular bowler, it plays on the batsman’s mind regardless of the pitch conditions.”
However, Singh stated that his relationship with Ponting had always been frosty, especially after the 1998 tri-series, involving India, Australia and New Zealand in Sharjah.
During that series, Ponting had hit Singh for a couple of sixes before the off-spinner bounced back by deceiving the Australian veteran with flight and spin and resulting in him getting stumped, which is where things got very ugly as Ponting was not impressed with Singh’s send-off gestures and both were fined by the match referee after getting into a heated confrontation.
But, Singh and Ponting’s intense rivalry peaked during the 2007-2008 tour, which was where the Monkeygate incident rose to fame almost overnight.
However, Singh noted that while he and Ponting were “never friends”, he still had a huge amount of respect for the Australian legend.
“Me and Ricky were never friends, but I have a lot of respect for him and for what he has done for cricket,” Harbhajan said.