India's seniors can turn things around like Ponting: Clark
Adelaide | Saturday, Jan 28 2012 IST
 

The star-studded Indian batting line-up, under-fire from various quarters after the whitewash at the hands of Australia, today received some unexpected support from rival skipper Michael Clarke, who still feels that they have the potential to turn it around soon like his predecessor Ricky Ponting. They are a very good team, a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge. I m pretty confident they ll turn things around, Clarke said after registering a 4-0 win against the tourists in the Test series. I have the utmost respect for every single one of their players, they have achieved a lot of as a team and achieved a hell of a lot as individual players, I hope they continue to have success in Test cricket and their senior players can play a big part in that, he added. The ageing trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman has been criticised by former greats after the dismal batting performance throughout the series. Meanwhile, Clarke cited Ponting s example who had massive success in the present series, scoring a double hundred and a century. Ponting was struggling to retain his place in the side when he came into the series. Now we re saying he s batting as good as he s ever batted. When you re not performing, you need to hang in there. I m confident they can turn it around. I don t really want to get involved in what India s plans are and how that s going to work, Clark said. Fortunately I don t have to answer that question because that is for the Indian team, that is for MS Dhoni and the Indian selectors to talk about and think about and assess. Today I sit on the other side and say the work we have done over the last 12 months. We re seeing some rewards and it s satisfying, he added. Meanwhile, even after registering the whitewash against the Indian side, Clark called for more consistency in the future. The consistency has been an area that we ve had to work on as a team. I hate to say it but I think you need that throughout your career. You need to go through a few tough times individually and as a team to realise how hard Test cricket is but then how special it is when you have days like today and a series like this, he said. We re currently ranked fourth in the world so we ve got a hell of a lot of work to do to get back to where I d love to see this team going. We ve shown a lot of people around the world that we re on the way up. We re getting there. We re getting better every day. I think India, and I have said it for a long time, have got some great players in that team. But our bowlers should be very proud of what they have achieved, to be able to get so many great players out, on a couple of wickets that were quite hard for batting but then also a couple of wickets that were very good for batting, so they deserve a lot of credit for that. It looks convincing the end result winning 4-0, but I can guarantee you there was certainly a lot of tough times throughout this Test series, he added. The 30-year-old Clark also patted himself on the back for the form he has shown throughout this series. I think I have learnt a lot along the way over the last four Test matches. I think I will continue to learn. I have said that I wanted to lead from the front on the field and make sure I was scoring runs, he said. Clarke, however, did not fail to point out the grey patches in his team. Individually Shaun (Marsh) and Eddie (Brad Haddin) and probably David (Warner) would have liked a few more runs. I m sure Shaun would like some runs. His form in one-day cricket and the shorter format has been outstanding for a good period of time. I do see him as a big part of the Australian team. But he certainly needs to keep making runs, he said. With the top order not doing well, there was a thought that Clarke should move up the order, probably at number three. That is probably I have to speak to the selectors and the coach and a couple of the senior players about I guess. We need to do whatever is best for the team, he said. If that means I stay at five for the rest of my career, then I stay at five. If I have to move, then I move. And everybody is the same in the team to be honest. My goal is to pick the best XI for every game we play to help us win that game of cricket, whether that be one-day cricket or Test cricket and whatever that XI is, I have no problems in selecting that if we think it s going to help us win the game, he added. UNI XC TBA HT1545 NNNN

-- (UNI) -- 28SPD26.xml

 

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