… Clarke assumes captaincy for fifth Test
(REUTERS) – Ricky Ponting’s hopes of staying on as captain to lead Australia to a pride-salvaging victory in the fifth and final Ashes Test have been dashed due to complications with his broken finger. Ponting, whose team surrendered the Ashes meekly on Wednesday with a crushing loss in the fourth Test in Melbourne, had been ruled out after a scan had shown he would need immediate treatment, the team said yesterday.
“I’m devastated to tell you the truth, it was the news I was dreading,” Ponting told reporters at Sydney airport. “During the game I didn’t think I’d done too much more to it.”
Ponting broke the little finger on his left hand attempting a catch during the third Test in Perth, but played under some discomfort in the next match in Melbourne, which England won to retain the Ashes and take a 2-1 lead going into the finale.
His long-time deputy and heir-apparent Michael Clarke will be promoted to become Australia’s 44th captain, while uncapped Usman Khawaja was named in a 12-man side yesterday and will be expected to take the Tasmanian’s spot at number three.
“I had a good chat with (Ponting) last night. His finger was still pretty sore,” coach Tim Nielsen told reporters in Melbourne.
“I think it’s just a situation where the finger won’t allow him to perform at his best. If Ponting was to play in Sydney and make it worse, then he could be out for a much longer time.”
With former players and pundits calling for Ponting to step down or be sacked, the injury’s timing could not be worse for the gritty 36-year-old, who had endured a dreadful series with the bat on the way to losing the urn for the third time.
Ponting had admitted after the Melbourne defeat that he had felt some discomfort playing with the finger but said he was still confident of playing the final Test.
Team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said Ponting would face surgery or “aggressive splinting and immobilisation” and not be expected to train until the later part of the Australian summer.
It is expected that he would be fully fit for the World Cup in February, Kountouris added.
Ponting, who also conceded the urn on tours in 2005 and last year, said retirement was the last thing on his mind.
“I’m not thinking about it at all,” he said.
The Tasmanian, the second-most prolific run-scorer in Test history, had averaged just 16 in the series and scored only a single half-century on the final afternoon of the drawn first Test in Brisbane.
Clarke, whose own form at the crease has been woeful, led Australia to the Twenty20 World Cup final earlier this year and won both plaudits for his astute captaincy, if not for his struggles with the bat throughout the tournament.
Team: Shane Watson, Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Michael Clarke (captain), Mike Hussey, Steve Smith, Brad Haddin (vice-captain), Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson, Doug Bollinger, Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Beer.