Indian tour started it all: Ricky Ponting

Melbourne, Feb 14 (PTI) Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has admitted that one of the most challenging summers of his career which he had just completed, started with the tour of India in October last year.
"It's been a challenging year, there is no doubt about that, going back to the start of the Indian tour. Things went pretty well for us in the West Indies, although we probably had to work a bit harder over there than we have in the past.

"We knew India was going to be challenging and it probably ended up being exactly what we thought it was going to be," Ponting said in an interview to 'The Daily Telegraph'.

However, Ponting insisted it was quite satisfactory to see new talents emerging and handling responsibilities during the summer which also saw the end of Australia's domination in world cricket.

"The whole year, there have been some challenges, but it has been an exciting one for me as well. To see the new fresh faces makes it an exciting time," Ponting said.

The cricketer, who is among the few in the country successfully playing in all forms of the game -- Test, ODI and Twenty20, do not consider the shortest version as a threat to the one-dayers. PTI

Despite good showing only two Indians in ICC top 10

London Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambhir retains his 10th spot while team-mate off-spinner Harbhajan Singh moved up one place to seventh in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test rankings issued on Thursday.

Gambhir, who scored 1134 runs in 2008 including three centuries in his last four Tests, is still the highest-ranked Indian batsman.

His opening partner Virender Sehwag, who scored 1462 runs in 2008, is at 13th spot while Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, both of whom also scored more than 1000 runs in 2008, jumped two places each to share joint 16th spot.

Harbhajan Singh remained the only Indian at the top 10 in the Test bowlers' list at the seventh place with 686 rating points.

Pacer Zaheer Khan is at 12th with 630 points in the list headed by Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan. The Test batsmen's chart is still headed by West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who is currently the only batsman in the world with 900 ratings points or more.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting has climbed back up the rankings to sixth after impressive knocks of 101 and 99 in Melbourne against South Africa. Ponting has leap-frogged his opposite number in the South Africa side, Graeme Smith, who has risen one spot to seventh.

Ponting's team-mate and vice-captain Michael Clarke climbed three places to reach career-best ninth following his 88 not out in Melbourne while Michael Hussey dropped out of top 10 for first time since 2006 after a run of low scores in the two Tests played so far against South Africa.

Outside top 20, South Africa's Jean-Paul Duminy has shot up the rankings by 62 places to 47th after his outstanding knock of 166 in Melbourne which set up a nine-wicket victory for the Proteas.

In the Test bowlers' chart, South Africa's Dale Steyn has narrowed the gap at the top of the table between himself and Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

Currently 39 points separate the two bowlers and with both men having two more Tests to play in their respective series, there is every opportunity for the gap to widen or decrease further.

Australia's injured fast bowler Brett Lee has dropped two places to ninth after ending the Melbourne Test with match figures of 0-117.

South Africa's Jacques Kallis still heads ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders followed by New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori.

Source: http://www.indiavilas.com/redir.asp?l=http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?j1752539753