'Ponting can comment on anything he wants': Gilchrist, Hayden's no-nonsense response to Gautam Gambhir's PC rebuttal
Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden backed up Ricky Ponting in the conflict with Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir.
While the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is always memorable for the battles fought on the field, the war of words that acts as a background to each series is often just as entertaining and heated as what is played out between the sets of players.
With barbs already being exchanged for many months now, things came to a head as Gautam Gambhir took umbrage with comments made by Ricky Ponting ahead of the opening Test match in Perth.
When asked about Ponting’s comments regarding the form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Gambhir was abrupt, asking “What does Ponting have to do with Indian cricket” in his press conference, before asking the former Australian skipper to focus on Australian players.
Ponting’s countrymen and former teammates were quick to come to his defence, pointing out that the former World Cup winning captain was well within his rights to bring this up.
“Punter can comment on anything he wants,” said legendary Aussie wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist on the Club Prairie Fire podcast. “I think he has earned the right to comment on most aspects of cricket. I love this, this is going to get the popcorn out for the rest of the summer.”
Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden was of a similar viewpoint, also expressing that as pundits, it was their job and profession to speak about cricket, including teams that tour Australia. “We are paid to make an opinion, make a comment and make a call about the game we know and love,” said the powerful southpaw batter.
Can India recover from Kiwi loss
Weighing in on the matter of the debate itself, Hayden agreed with both Ponting and Gambhir’s arguments that Kohli and Sharma have enough experience behind them to figure out the missing pieces on such a crucial tour as the BGT.
“Both the Australian and Indian cricket team have not played a lot of long form cricket, the reality is that is going to make the competition really close. When you think about Test cricket, all the names that GG and Punter are squabbling over, they have been masters of long form cricket,” argued Hayden.
While Gambhir was unhappy with Ponting’s comments, the Australian figure did agree with the notion that Kohli and Sharma had the quality to bounce back from a difficult series against New Zealand, at least on an individual level. However, the fiery character of Gambhir is likely to use this element of pressure from Australian media to fire up his own team, in order to try and inspire a strong performance down under.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy will begin with a match at the Optus Stadium in Perth, starting November 22nd.
