I don't think there was any malice: Ricky Ponting weighs in on Head-Siraj incident in Adelaide
Former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has weighed in on the heated exchange between India's Mohammed Siraj and Australia's Travis Head during the Adelaide Test.
Ponting, speaking on the ICC Review, suggested that the incident was more a product of miscommunication than malice.
Both players were fined for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct, with Siraj penalised for aggressive language and Head for verbal abuse. However, Ponting believes that the initial intent wasn't to provoke, “Looking back at it now, I think it was accidental the way that whole thing played out. I don't think there was any malice meant at the start."
Ponting also acknowledged that India's pace attack, under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, is expected to display such intensity, "Rohit (Sharma) I'm sure would expect these fast bowlers to react like that. When they're under the pressure and they're getting hit and then they've just got a wicket you'd expect that they'd be up and about."
Despite the on-field tension, the two players eventually reconciled, with the incident quickly fading into the background as Australia secured a dominant victory.
