Former captain Ricky Ponting speaks of his regret at an inopportune injury that kept him sidelined as Australia conquered their final frontier
Ponting's personal pain of 2004 triumph
It was one of Australia's greatest achievements of the past 30 years, but also one of the greatest regrets for one of Australia's greatest cricketers.
An innocuous fielding mishap for Ricky Ponting, setting in motion a chain of events that resulted in Australia claiming a famous – and rare – Test series win in India.
Ponting was fielding in the slips in the 2004 Champions Trophy semi-final at Edgbaston. After England cruised to a six-wicket win, Ponting reported to team medicos with a sore left thumb.
X-rays the following morning confirmed a fracture and suddenly the best laid plans for the next month's Border-Gavaskar four-Test series in India were in disarray.
As the Australia squad departed England direct for India, a forlorn Ponting headed home. It meant that suddenly the young uncapped batsman in the India touring party, Michael Clarke, was assured a debut in the opening Test.
Ponting's left thumb didn't require surgery, and he was soon on his way to India, by which stage Clarke had made his mark with 151 on debut and Australia were 1-0 up after two Tests.
"I got there in time for the third Test, which was the Test we won to win the series," Ponting recalled to cricket.com.au this week.
"I then came back and played the last Test, which we lost."
The fourth Test in which Ponting returned saw 40 wickets fall in two-and-a-half days, and while Ponting raged after the match at the condition of that Mumbai pitch, Australia nevertheless had a superb 2-1 series win.
Ponting couldn't help but feel somewhat cheated, sidelined during an epic series and pivotal win that had been some time in the making.
"Yeah, I felt like I missed out by not being a player in the team, but we’d been building towards having that success there for quite a while," Ponting recalled.
"We had quite a set plan of how we wanted to do things in that series and it worked for us.
"That was one of the great achievements of my playing time, for that group of players to go to India and win that series over there.
"It goes to show that no matter what the conditions, if you execute what you can do really well, then you give yourself the best chance of winning.
"And if you handle the pressure situations and pressure moments then sometimes that can be the difference not only to winning a Test match, but winning an entire series and that’s what that team did well back in 2004."