New Delhi: Australia great Ricky Ponting feels the comprehensive victory that India claimed in Perth in the Border Gavaskar Trophy series opener is their greatest-ever triumph on foreign soil. Although India have had wins similar to this in the past, including the famous victory at Gabba in 2021 which cruised the Men in Blue to a historic series win, but the former Australian captain had his reasons to highlight the Perth one.
“It’ll go down, I’m sure, as one of India’s greatest-ever Test match wins, and it probably should. With the players down that they had… Rohit (Sharma), not there, (Shubman) Gil, not there and (Mohammed) Shami not there… It’s an amazing win,” Ponting told cricbuzz in Jeddah, on the sidelines of the IPL 2025 mega auction. India won the game by a huge margin of 295 runs, after slumping to a paltry 150 in the first innings.
Ponting tried to dissect what made India hold the upper hand throughout the Test and highlighted the importance of toss as stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah flipped the coin in his favour. “Winning the toss was a big advantage. I said that at the time. The record is that the team that won (at the Optus Stadium) batted first. Every time,” Ponting said. Even Australia have won four of the five Tests there batting first.
Ponting on Bumrah leading India’s fightback
Bumrah opted to bat and the team bundled out for a meager 150 in less than 50 overs but the visitors fought back to pick seven wickets on the first day with Bumrah picking four of them. The skipper led from the front, taking eight wickets overall, and was rightfully adjudged the Player of the Match.
“Oh, no doubt, Bumrah led the way. The way he bowled at the start of the first innings was incredible. With Shami not being there, he had to stand up and lead the way. And being the captain, he did it, Ponting perceived. He went on to add that it was the second half of the first day when the game changed as India’s bowling group stood up late, also not forgetting to mention the batting masterclasses of centurions Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
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