He was up against a leader who has a hundred percent record, having won both the Tests he has led in. A leader, who, has that single quality prized above all else by Abraham Lincoln - luck. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is younger, and less experienced, but he was lucky with the toss in Mohali, and that made the crucial difference.

The captaincy-team debate is rather like the driver-vehicle debate in Formula One. Can a great driver overcome the handicap of a poor car? Can a poor driver win a great car? Man for man, this Australian team is inferior to India, and the score at the halfway stage reflects this. Now is the time for great captains to come to the aid of the party. A team with Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist did not need particularly deft handling. But one with Cameron White, Peter Siddle and Brad Haddin does. At least till these players develop into the kind they have replaced.

A thought experiment: How would Dhoni have handled this Australian side playing against an Indian side led by the struggling Ponting? Would he have been able to inspire the strike bowler into embarrassing the batsmen rather than his captain? Would he have kept India’s famed middle order in check with his limited resources? Ponting would certainly have played the Australian bowlers better than he did Ishant Sharma in Mohali. If the captains exchanged teams, who would you put your money on?

The answer is so obvious it doesn’t bear repeating - yet within that answer lies the essence of captaincy. Captains can raise a team’s play only so much - Mike Brearley made his reputation in 1981 when he turned a 0-1 start by England (under Ian Botham) into a 3-1 series win. Tiger Pataudi, brought back to lead when he was long finished as a batsman, pulled level after India trailed West Indies 0-2 in a home series (before the visitors finally won 3-2 in 1974-75). These are two cases of captains changing the fortunes of an inferior team.

If the Delhi pitch for the third Test follows the curator’s instructions and turns out to be a turner, responding to Anil Kumble as it has done so often in the past, the toss will be all-important. If Australia bat first, they have the batsmen to run up a huge score, and that will act like an additional bowler putting pressure on the Indians. Ponting has gone on about his team’s new-age cricket, a claim that looks hollow now. But a small thing like an Indian rupee coin can still make him sound like a sage and restore his aura as captain.

Thankyou for this article. There has been a whole lot made of Australia's failings after losing just one test. True, Suresh, things may have been different if Ponting had called correctly at the toss but I think luck is only of use to you if you have the skill to back it up. Winning the toss would mean nothing if their batsmen failed to capitalise. Take the first test. Ponting won the toss and his batsmen made hay, however, when India's turn came, they dug themselves out of a hole because they were good enough to do that. As an Australian used to seeing his side dominate, it is a strange feeling watching this series and seeing that India appear to be on top in every facet of the game. They are only one test down though, so despite India's dominance to date, I think it is a touch early for the vultures to be circling. Having said that, the Aussies sure do need to lift their game to match India and a little bit of luck for Ponting wouldn't go astray.

One should just look back to the India Sri Lanka ODI series where Dhoni led a similarly inexperienced team. See the result and see Dhoni's contribution both as batsman and captain. Now compare Ponting's performance as a captain.

Good post...however, Ricky Ponting had a bad test match. Nothing more than that. All players go through bad matches...captains too have bad matches. I think we should hold off on permanent judgements as to their capabilities based on one-off bad matches. Same holds for Kumble. Same holds for Dhoni.

Ponting will have to raise his game and first he must think of a way to counter Ishant Sharma. India will aim to humiliate Aussies yet again. Australia are rock bottom but an inspiring knock from the captain can turn things in their favour.

Hayden is boasting about a new technique to play Zaheer- I think that's just loose talk because he likes to say these things.

The pitch is definitely going to be a turner, no doubt about that. If Kumble wins the toss he must bat first so that he can bowl last and put Aussies under pressure. It doesn't matter so much what Ponting does; whether he bats first or second his goal is to attack and play positively.

As a captain I don't think Ponting is particularly gifted. He is good, but not like Waugh. His real test will come now, how he can revive his team's fortunes. If he can do that, that will convince some of us that he can be a good captain.

After the Mohali Test victory, much has been made about Dhoni winning the toss and India having derived a big advantage as a result. But the fact is that the wicet was playable till even the fourth and fifth days. India batted without much ado in the second innings as well after the Australian first innings had gone astray. I feel that the Indian bowling was better prepared for the conditions, just as the batsmen too were. It is quite another matter that Dhoni seems to be getting it right as a captain, be it in the 20/20 world cup or in the CB series or in the two tests he has captained India. I do not agree also with the view that the Australian attack is a touch ineffective. I am sure this very lot will be quite a handful in English and South African conditions. It is high time we started acknowledging the performance of the supporting staff, particularly Kirsten and Prasad.

You are creating double standards by yourself. You said that Dhoni lead a teasm of experienced players to victory and giving no credit to his decisions in match, his field placements and his leading by example approach in batting. on the other hand declaring Ponting one of the finiest captains and forgetting that Ponting also got all those victories by riding on the shoulders of all the great players like warne, Mcgrath, Langer, Haydena nd martyn.