Sydney, Nov 12 : Facing sharp criticism over wrong choice of bowlers during the fourth day of the last Test against India in Nagpur which his side miserably lost by 172 runs, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has said that he had no regrets over his decisions and he won’t shy away from repeating the decision in future.

Though he said he and the team learnt a lesson from the incident.

He said that slow overrate has been a problem with his side for quite long and that he had told his teammates that such a situation might arise when he would have to call spinner to bowl long spells to increase the overrate.

Denying that he resorted to “negative tactics” in order to restore the over-rate during a critical period of the fourth day of the Test, he said he was not aware how far behind he was until the side emerged from the tea break.

Ponting said he still believed he had no other option than the one taken, and that he had warned the side on many occasions that just such a situation might arise. “Over rates have been an issue for our team for a long time and I''ve made it pretty clear to everybody that at some stage somewhere I''ve always felt it''s going to come back to bite us. With this actual incident it snuck up on me without me knowing much about it. An hour before the tea break we were only six overs down,” The Australian quoted Ponting as saying last night after arriving from India.

He added: “Six overs down in a Test match is manageable, understanding that at some stage later in that afternoon we were going to have to bowl spin for a long period of time. The fast bowlers bowling the way they were going into the tea break meant that when I went back on to the field after tea the umpires alerted me to the fact that I was nine overs down and that obviously becomes a big problem then. It snuck up on me without me being aware of it.”

Ponting asked the umpires to keep him updated every 15 minutes after the tea break about the over rate.

He vowed that Australia would continue to be a positive and aggressive side and he would not change his approach to leadership. “I will continue to be a ruthless captain and a ruthless player and I would expect that my team-mates would be in the same boat,” he said and added: “And if they are not now, after having lost a Test series in India 2-0 then we''ll have to look around for some other guys, but I am confident that we can hit the ground running in Brisbane against New Zealand and play some of the best Test cricket that we''ve seen for a while.” (ANI)