He does play spin very well in general, his batting in 99 vs Murali was outstanding, had no problems whatsoever on massive turning tracks. In 01 Harby got him early all series, batting at number 6, he did look bad but has never looked that bad since.
I'm not saying Ponting can't play spin in India, but he hardly turned into a run scoring machine after that Bangalore ton in 2008. His scores for the rest of the 4 test series in 2008 were:
I don't think he struggles against spin. in fact, he can dominate spin like anybody else. Anyone who hammers bhajji the way ricky did in the '03 WC final has to be a master player of spin. also his double hundreds against india on aussie soil and some of his performances against murali are great demonstrations of his mastery over quality spin. it is just that his weak record in india will always be a blackmark against him, since he will end up averaging under 30 over here despite two good series towards the end, that it will be a good point to use against people who would like to project ponting as "the" batter of his generation. this point is useful only for jobless guys discussing cricket in pub. otherwise, ricky, whenever he retires, can leave the game with the satisfaction he has done his best for his country and that he will be remembered as a top 20 batsman of all time.
Yeah, he went so early in that series every time that you could never really tell how good he was.
Zaheer is hitting good areas, but yeah... a bit too easy to leave alone, even if he is getting swing.
