Wait till I am fit till writing me off as a nervous hooker, Ponting warns critics

London, Jan 10 (ANI): Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who has been under fire with talk that his hook and pull shots have become a liability and he should drop down the order from his spot at No. 3, has said that he is far from being on the wane as a Test batsman.

The defiant skipper countered by claiming his recent issues with short-pitched bowling were caused by an elbow injury sustained when hit by West Indian paceman Kemar Roach in Perth.

He has been caught off mistimed pull shots against Pakistan in Melbourne and Sydney, the Daily Telegraph reports.

"Wait until I get fit again and we'll see if everyone is still saying the same thing about it then. They are such reactive shots, they are instinctive. I'm not sure how people in the past have gone about putting them away," Ponting said.

"I think I have been out twice this summer pulling, but it is a shot that keeps bringing me runs so we'll see how we go with that. But as I said, if I get my elbow right then I think you'll see me playing with a lot more freedom and not only those shots, but a lot of other shots around the ground as well," he said.

For the first time, Australia's leading Test scorer Ponting has been criticised for his batting. He has returned just 80 runs at 20 against Pakistan after scoring 136 at 34 in the three Tests against the West Indies.

"It is like anything we do in our game, it is all results driven. I know within myself I haven't scored the runs that I felt I should have scored this summer. Coming into this summer off the one-dayers in India I felt I was batting as well as ever. It is time for me to start turning all that around again," he said.

His recent slump has also resulted in a call for Ponting, 35, to shift to No. 5 to prolong his career. (ANI)