Ponting agrees with Taylor’s ‘past his peak’ remarks

SYDNEY - Australia captain Ricky Ponting has revealed that he agrees with former skipper Mark Taylor’s claim that his career is on the downslide and he is not going to repeat his earlier batting form.

Taylor had asked Ponting to take inspiration from cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar in order to resurrect his fading batting form.

“I think what Mark had to say was that he probably didn’t think I could get any better from where I am at the moment. It wasn’t so much about saying that I’m past it. He just thought that it was going to be hard for me to get back to my absolute best again, and that’s probably right,” Fox Sports quoted Ponting, as saying.

“I think there is a period in every batsman’s life where they are playing at their absolute best. Even Sachin Tendulkar now, even though he’s scored nine hundreds last year, was probably not at his absolute best, either.”

“So, what Mark said may be right, but by no means do I think I can’t play at the level I want to play at,” he added.

Over the past two years, Ponting’s average has been around 40, as opposed to a career record comfortably above 50.

Earlier, Taylor had said that Ponting is still world-class, but “not getting any better”.

“He [Ponting] is not getting any better. He may no longer be the batsman he was in his late 20s but he is still a very good batsman. Ponting’s best is behind him but he is still capable of scoring big hundreds,” Taylor had said.

“I think Sachin has had a rebirth. He’s really batting at his best and that can be a sort of inspiration for Ponting,” he added.

Taylor also claimed that captaincy was harming Ponting’s chances of threatening Tendulkar’s Test run tally and world-record 49 centuries as of now. (ANI)