Out-of-form Ponting’s place in Oz squad for India Test series in doubt

Hobart: Australian batsman Ricky Ponting might be forced to retire if Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh are both fit to play the Boxing Day Test against India.

Ponting’s five in the first innings of the Hobart Test against New Zealand yesterday means that he is now without a Test century from his past 30 innings. Even more startling, the former captain is tracking even worse than opening batsman Phillip Hughes, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Since the third Ashes Test in Perth last summer, when Hughes replaced an injured Katich, Ponting has made 320 runs at 23 in eight matches and passed 50 on only two occasions. Hughes has marginally better numbers of 437 runs at 24.27 from 10 Tests, but boasts a hundred and a half-century. Unlike Hughes, Ponting has an exceptional 16-year career to fall back on, but he might have exhausted his credits. Bureau Report