Travis Head is Australia's leading run-getter in the series but he has been dismissed many times after playing needless shots
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting rued the lack of application from their batsmen throughout the four-match Test series against India.
The Australians have struggled against the Indian pace battery as the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma have continued to pile on the misery on the home batsmen and are now 1-2 in the series.
What's worse is that the home side are currently trailing India by 598 runs in the first innings of the fourth and final Test after India put on a mammoth first-innings total of 622/7d on Friday.
Speaking about the series so far, Ponting said that the Australians have committed way to many mistakes throughout the series and that has cost them.
"As far as I'm concerned, this batting group through this series has made way too many mistakes. Technical, mental, whatever those mistakes may be, they've made a lot of mistakes," Ponting told cricket.com.au.
"It hasn't necessarily been the first mistake they've made either that's led to them getting out. They've made a lot of mistakes then eventually got out. To be fair, India have probably had the best of the batting conditions," he added.
The 44-year-old however also felt that India batted during the best phases of the match and made the most of it.
"The first part of the game in Melbourne was the best time to bat, and now (day one and two) is going to be the best time to bat here in Sydney," Ponting said.
The 2003 and 2007 World Cup winning captain also pointed out the difference between the impact the batsmen of two sides have had.
Travis Head has top scored for the hosts so far in the series with 271 runs while Marsh has scored only 175 runs from three Tests while Khawaja has 172. For India, Ajinkya Rahane has 217 runs to his name and is the fourth highest run-getter in the series for the visitors. Cheteshwar Pujara leads the charts with 521 runs to his name while Rishabh Pant has 350 and is followed by Virat Kohli (282).
"You look at the top five run-scorers and four of them are Indians and we've got Travis Head sitting at No.5 with 217 runs when Rishabh has got 350 as their keeper-batter. That highlights how little impact our batsmen have had on this series," Ponting said.
