The Australian captain has not only become a target within Cricket Australia but also, within media circles who forced Ricky Ponting into speaking his mind about his personal goals ahead of speaking of the challenge of facing India in the second ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 quarterfinal match in Ahmedabad tomorrow.
Ponting has blamed his lack of form for the news reports swirling about his retirement and also, believes that the inquiries about a possible role in the England cricket county was taken out of context.

Ponting was speculated as probably stepping down from Australia’s captaincy at the conclusion of the India v Australia ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 quarterfinal match and instead opt to play for an England county team instead. Ponting has himself clarified that he has no intentions of relinquishing the Australian captaincy, unless he is forced to by Cricket Australia and that the only reason the England county stint is even being mentioned is because he has been exploring the possibility of playing in England in between the Australia Bangladesh series and the Sri Lanka Australia series to regain his form.

The heat on Ponting is being generated heavily by the Australian media, and the fact that Ponting’s bat has not really spoken in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 has really put immense spotlight on the captain personally after Australia recently lost the Ashes for a third time under his captaincy.

While there is intense debate on what is wrong with Australian and what needs to be done to rectify it with the Cricket Australia set up even engaging former captains in Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor on a reformation mission to come up with solutions, Ponting is copping the flak for the team in transition that will come up against India in the first knock out stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.