Ricky Ponting should play on in Tests: Nasser Hussain

London : Under-fire Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has been urged to play on in Test cricket by former England captain Nasser Hussain.

?I don?t think he would want to go out on this note. He had a bad couple of months: he failed to regain the Ashes, didn?t get any runs and had an argument with an umpire. It?s not how he would want to finish,? Hussain writes in the February Ashes Souvenir issue of The Wisden Cricketer magazine.

?He has given so much to Australian cricket that he deserves the chance to show he can score runs again without the burden of captaincy. This must have taken so much out of him ? not just on the field, where he went from leading one of the greatest sides of all time to captaining an ordinary team, but also off it.?

Hussain likens Ponting?s situation to that of India great Sachin Tendulkar, who came back strongly after a lean period with the bat.

?Ricky?s batting record in the last year was not great and it may be, of course, that age has simply caught up with him. But I would like to see him play on for a while and try to perform the way Tendulkar has over the past two years after his dip in form.

?The first question Ricky needs to answer is how hungry he is and how much he wants to carry on. He looks hungry and he did a vast amount of work on his body before the Ashes. But it is his mind that needs the work ? it needs to be clear and that was not the case these past few months.

?The second question will be asked of his technique. Whereas Sachin was able to fall back on a brilliant technique when he struggled, Ricky has never been a technically perfect batsman; there are too many moving parts. So that may prove a problem but I would love to see him give it a go, to have a good year as a batsman and then say: ?OK, that?s me, I?m done.? He deserves that,? writes Hussain.

The February issue of the world?s best-selling cricket monthly is dedicated to England?s Ashes triumph.

A 35-page special feature includes an England team poster, Ian Bell?s Test-by-Test review from the England dressing room and top columnists including Nasser Hussain, BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew and former Wisden editor Matthew Engel.