Twenty20's increasing power over player management decisions may have cost Australia the Mohali Test match.
Doug Bollinger's abdominal strain before lunch on the final day robbed Ricky Ponting of his best bowler, and no-one will ever know how much fitter the left-armer might have been if he had not been forced to fly from a T20 tournament in South Africa three days before the start of the Test.
Due to have scans on the injury on Wednesday, Bollinger is in doubt for the second Test at Bangalore, but the greater pain will be missing the hour after lunch that was the difference between a meritorious victory and a cruel defeat.
"It probably doesn't help," said Ponting of Bollinger's T20 duty
But when Ponting went to collect Bollinger's cap for another over, he received the bad news.
"I actually had him ready to bowl the next over," said Ponting.
In search of a final spin spell of the Test, Ponting turned pointedly to the part-timer Marcus North, but denied he lacked confidence in his specialist option.
"I think North showed in the first innings he's in really good control of his game as far as his spinning is concerned," said Ponting.
"Nathan today probably just leaked a few too many runs, and the stage when we needed to go back to some spin today we couldn't really afford to leak any more runs
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