Ishant Sharma gets the thumbs up from Aussies skipper Ricky Ponting.
"Ishant has been the standout young player in the Indian set up though the tour. Everybody has spoken about him. At different times he has bowled very good spells. The spell he bowled to me in Perth on the last day was some of the better bowling I have faced in Test cricket," Ponting told television channel NDTV.
Ponting said he would keep a watch on how this tall and lanky pacer would develop in the future. "He's someone who's going to be around for a while and play a lot of cricket. It's something I have always said about the Indian team: they always seem to produce good young players. Let's see how they develop over the next few years."
Ponting said he was sad that the on and off-field controversies had shown him and his team in poor light. He also admitted that Harbhajan Singh had a difficult tour and would be relieved at the end of it.
"I think a few Australian players and me too (were shown in bad light). I think a lot of it from me was really unavoidable. I was not involved in any of those stuff that happened. I was supposed to do captaining my side but with the Harbhajan incident somehow it came out looking badly," he said.
"It's been a hard summer for him (Harbhajan). As to say how many wickets he has ended up taking on this tour, I imagine he had a magnificent tour. He had a good tour and he has got wickets at the end... He got two big wickets in Sydney of Symonds and Hayden.
"He had a fair share of his dues ever since he has been in Australia as he was among quite a few of those players. I think he must be relieved going back home and getting out of Australia and when you win a match, it becomes easier," he added.
Ponting, however, denied that his team's performance was affected due to the off-field incidents or that Harbhajan Singh was spurred to do better.
"I don't think so it happened. If things get tough, you genuinely play a lot more better cricket and I think he tried to play exactly the same way," he said.
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