Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting praised stand-in India captain Ajinky Rahane for picking up the pieces from the Adelaide bashing and leading his team with example at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
"I think he's done a great job to pick up the pieces from Adelaide with this team. (He) lead really well in the field yesterday and you can see he's playing like a captain now as well," Ponting was quoted as saying to cricket.com.au.
Stating that Rahane wants to put out a statement and also inspire his troops to make a comeback in regular skipper Virat Kohli’s absence, Ponting said, "He wants to play that captain's knock. He wants to get a hundred in Virat's absence and do the best thing he can to try and drag his country and his team back into this series."
Comparing the calmness and the patience that he showed on the crease, instead of getting rattled, the Punter termed his knock as being ‘Pujara’ like.
"He's almost played a (Cheteshwar) Pujara-like innings. No thrills, he's hit very few boundaries but he's just continually backing his defense and trying to wear the Australian bowlers down,” explained the 46-year-old.
Rahane,32, completed his 12th Test century, but Australian fielders and his fortune were with him as well since he was dropped twice while one catch went directly to first slip, but there was no one there.
However, Punter believes that the Australian bowlers needed to make him drive more by keeping the covers out. "I think the Australians haven't made him cover drive enough. I think they've been a little bit short and they've plugged that cover region.
"That nick that we saw, that went between Paine and Smith, I think that could have been covered with another slip in place and leave the cover area open."
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