Steve Waugh, one of the best captains Australia ever had (arguably the best), won everything cricket had to offer. But there was definitely something he would regret, his entire life: failure to conquer what he had termed 'the Final Frontier'.
He had, in his stint as skipper, failed to win a Test series in India. His successor, Ricky Ponting, is still a few years away from retirement, but his list of regrets is increasingly getting longer -- and here we are only talking about results. There are instances in his resume that he would rather do away with. But the problem is, he can't.
The surrender of the Ashes' urn to Michael Vaughan's England in 2005, the successive loses in the finals of the now defunct Commonwealth Bank Series -- to England in 2007 and India in 2008 -- and the thrashing from India in the semi-finals of the inaugural T20 World Cup are some of Ponting's disappointments as captain.
As a player, he could only witness (he was out with an injured toe) Adam Gilchrist lead Australia to that elusive series win in India (2004). He did turn up for the third Test in Mumbai, but Australia failed to win that.
Add to it his awful batting record while playing in India -- he has scored only 319 runs @ 17.72 in 10 Tests -- and it cuts a sorry figure. And despite a resolute 123 in the first innings of the opening Test in Bangalore, Ponting has failed to keep the momentum. His subsequent scores of 17, 5 and 2 are analogous to Australia's batting form in the series.
The fact that his side is already 1-0 down in the four-match series has forced him to introspect the shortcomings, and if he is to be believed, he has found an answer.
"Losing is never a great experience," admitted Ponting, on the eve of the third Test at the Ferozshah Kotla.
"But you can always take some good things from that and learn some lessons. In the last week we had time to sit back and think about the errors we made.
"I know the mistakes I have made as a player so far and am also aware of the errors on part of some the other guys. We have spoken long and hard about it. The true test is that we don't make those mistakes again."
The introspection has also enabled Ponting to find out where exactly have India outplayed Australia in this series.
"Reverse swing has played a big part in both the Tests so far, and in Mohali, in particular, the Indians out-bowled us," admitted Ponting, in a manner that is rather candid.
"When the ball started reverse swinging, the Indian bowlers put it in the right areas and troubled our batsmen. I think that is the area where the Indians have scored over us.
"Our bowlers have been a bit off the line with the reverse swinging ball and we have paid the price for that."
The Australian captain was relieved about the break between the second and the third Tests.
"It (the break) has done us some good. Back-to-back Test matches are always hard to play," he admitted. "After the Mohali Test I told the boys to get just forget about the loss and get away form the game.
"We thought about how we can improve ourselves as an individual and how you can help the team cause. Our meeting on Sunday morning was very good: we talked about a lot of things and those have more importantly been put into practice in the last couple of days. I think you will definitely see a better Australian team in this [third] Test."
Agreed. But the Australians have left no stone unturned and taken every possible help, all to no avail. Mention this and the captain gets defensive (akin to the way he bats on Indian pitches).
"No, I do not think so. We have not been looking around to invite these people to come around and have a look," he explained, before going into finer details.
"Greg (Chappell) was here as an assistant coach, Steve (Waugh) just happened to be here for some MCC function. He had dinner with us the other night and offered to come and have a look at us train. He did spend some one-on-one sessions with some of the players yesterday. But he hasn't been involved in any team discussion.
"And I am exactly not sure how (Bishen Singh) Bedi happened to be at the training the other day. He too was there at one of the dinners and the next time I saw him was at the training the next day."
This time the explanation wasn't as convincing. But that has been the case with the Australians on this tour -- they have so far been anything but convincing.
And Ponting is aware that in order to save the series, he would have to convince his players to be convincing.
