Ponting in Delhi. (Prem Singh)

New Delhi, Oct. 27: Seldom does an Australian cricket captain have to fend from the poorer end of a series scoreline. It is probably rarer for him to admit to that.

But the burden of the Mohali defeat appears to have turned the tongue of the man who arrived here assuming “new age” supremacy over a side he chided for playing “old-school-type” cricket. Ricky Ponting is in unfamiliar straits making unfamiliar admissions.

“We are playing an inferior standard of cricket at the moment,” he told The Telegraph in the midst of gearing up for the critical third Test that starts at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Wednesday. “I have to say we are a bit off.”

Asked why, Ponting splayed his palms and shook his head. “If I knew that, I would have sorted it all out by now, I don’t know what exactly it is. Could be a combination of a whole lot of things, we’re working on them, but as I said, at the moment the Indians are playing the better game, we’re behind.”

The Aussie skipper was quick to add, though, that one defeat should not become the basis for striking his team off the champions slot. “There’s a lot of that happening, not only in India but also back home in Australia, people suddenly saying rude things about us. But look, one match is really too thin a basis to reach such huge conclusions on.”

Asked to respond to Ian Chappell’s view that Ponting’s was the weakest side to travel in a long time, he shook his head again: “What can I say? Ian’s been negative about us for a long time and I really don’t read much of the media while touring. But I suppose he is paid to give his opinion.”

He hadn’t met Chappell on this tour, he said, and wasn’t looking forward to. “I’m not sure there is much to be gained from talking to him, I don’t like meeting negative people. The way I look at it is that people have got so used to us winning that even one defeat comes as a surprise, that’s the kind of standard we have set ourselves and that is what we have to work ourselves back to hereon.”

How would that happen, though? Brett Lee and Matthew Hayden’s return to form? Andrew Symonds’ return to the team? Or does the answer lie in the rising clamour for the return of Shane Warne from retirement? “No, no, we aren’t getting Shane back, and Shane isn’t coming back, he’s said as much,” Ponting said.

“We can’t keep looking back, what we have to do is to find a great spinner who will win us matches. Andrew is a talent we miss but he has had problems that he is working through at the moment. And of course people have to discover their form, it is quite obvious that has to happen and will serve us well on this tour,” Ponting said.

Ponting was casually dismissive of reports about differences in Aussie dressing room, but did admit guilt on what he called “communication errors”. Brett Lee’s frustrations on not being brought on to bowl on the penultimate day of the Mohali Test, he said, was a result of one of those. “There is nothing going on between us, I assure you,” Ponting said. “It was just that I wanted to slow the pace on the ball because both Sehwag and Gambhir like the ball coming on, that is why the relatively slower bowlers. And then there was the matter of over-rates, I didn’t want to be facing suspension. But, yes, perhaps I should have communicated this to Brett a little in advance, that was all there is to it.”

He took a dim view of a lot that gets reported and said: “Very often, the media make more of things than they deserve, like that thing between me and Sehwag at Mohali. All I did was to ask him whether he had nicked the ball on the way to the keeper at the end of day’s play, and so much got written all over the place, it was funny and sad. We never thought much of that thing between Hayden and Harbhajan back in Australia either. But things got said and reported after the incident and the whole issue got blown up. Best forgotten, get on with the game.”

On a personal note, Ponting sounded sanguine about overtaking Sachin Tendulkar’s recently set Test runs record.

“Look, I don’t get up every morning thinking how I am going to get ahead of him, but that is going to happen in time I think. I have three or four playing years on top of him and I think Sachin’s record will fall in time,” he said.

Asked how long he thought Sachin would go on, Ponting said: “I’m not sure, he’s playing on and playing well, he’ll probably get to 13,000 or so (Test runs) in maybe another year or so. But frankly, I don’t see him going into the next World Cup.”

Ponting himself isn’t looking that far yet; there’s the current series to battle for and then the other big challenge he’s set his eyes on is the second IPL season. “Look, I really love Kolkata and playing at Eden Gardens and I have to make serious amends at the IPL for the Knight Riders, that’s something I am really keen on.”

Ponting had an indifferent first season with the Knight Riders, scoring only 39 in four innings with two ducks --- bad memories that are obviously fresh in him for he remembers each of his dismissals. “I was clearly unlucky with that runout against the Mumbai Indians and that catch at mid-wicket against the Challengers, that was actually a good shot. But I also had too little time, I am really keen to do better in the second season, I think the Knight Riders deserve that from me.”