The fact that Australia didn't field their best team to defend their world title is of no relevance. So you tend to select your best only for world cups and not for test series? How bizzare.
That's more to do with Ponting being captain of his team. If a team fails, the captain will obviously be criticized.
Um, no, what are you talking about?
Of course you are not because the stats are not in your favor.
It is NOT a fact. It is your opinion that SRT will be under a different pressure because suddenly India are No 1. If at all there is a pressure it is on Dhoni not on SRT.
I don't know who are those people, for 10 years Ponting and Australia both failed in India, from what I remember no one asked for Ponting's head after those losses.
To a large extent that's true, but it also has to do with being the best batsman of his team. He is expected to pad up and win it for us above all other batsmen. If he is scoring runs when the game is settled or where they are not as important he'll not be seen in near the same light. When you're #1 it's not enough to just score runs; it's all about winning. Do you think Ponting would get near the same accolades as Chappell or Waugh if he was averaging the same and losing/drawing? I don't think so, frankly.
I am not sure this is true ikki. even in 01 when australia won the odi series in india, steve waugh was gushing about how the world champions couldn't be beaten that easily in ODIs (and he was right). he took a lot of pride in winning that series.
If Australia has a chance to go up and become no.1 in test rankings as a result of beating india, then it indeed is a championship clash. Right now, I don't think that can happen. Please improve your rankings and let's see about scheduling one.
The suggestion that it makes him lesser batsman is the point of this thread.
I didn't compare Waugh as a ODI to Tendulkar. I think the comparison is stupid. What are you talking about?
I said it is a fact that India are #1. That's true. Of course it is my opinion that the pressure of being #1 is different. What else could it be?
Because beating India away was never a barrier to us becoming #1. Do you think there was a national holiday because we finally did it?
Yeah, like Sachin losing his captaincy post the disastrous tour of Australia albeit being man of series and having to captain the worst team ever post perhaps Independence.
And Jayasuriya flopped in the final too. That did not made him not to be regarded as the man of the tournament. Same thing happened in 2003 too.
That is true to an extent, but the difference my friend, is that through the 90s(Sachin's best decade) SRT never had the support from either bowling or batting to force more wins.
This is what you said :-
We're only 5 points behind you guys in rating. I am pretty sure a series win would see the crown change hands.
Not really. It's more like he'd be seen in an even better light if he did win it. I can only speak for myself, but I have him 3rd after Bevan and Viv in ODIs as a batsman. If he were to win the WC I'd have him as #1.
I wouldn't pay much attention to pre-series hype. They're paid to make the clashes more interesting than they are. But I know most fans, which would translate to the players as well, really, don't care about any other ODI series really bar the WC. If you recall, we lost the Chappell-Hadlee trophy just prior to the WC 3-0, lost our #1 rank in ODIs and nobody gave a hoot. Ponting was even rested in that tourney for the WC. In the WC however, we dominated. We've not lost a WC game for over a decade.
