Australian batsman Ricky Ponting admitted that his below-par performance in the just concluded Border-Gavaskar Test series was due to his inability to read Harbhajan Singh's off-spin bowling.

Ponting, who made just 17 runs in five innings in the series at an average of 3.4 was quoted in the local media as saying, "I could not recover from my first Test dismissal in India and was rattled by the spin of Harbhajan Singh throughout my disastrous series."

In the first Test in Mumbai, Ponting pushed forward to Harbhajan and popped a catch off his gloves to short leg for the first of his three ducks. "My first dismissal played in my mind throughout the series. I thought I didn't do much wrong and still got out. After that I was going out there thinking about different game plans and how I was going to play him. It's a bit of a psychological dent," Ponting said.

"But hopefully in the one-dayers I can face a few balls from the fast bowlers and feel a few in the middle of the bat and things will change," he added.

Ponting was dismissed five times by the 20-year old offspinner in this series. He faced just one ball from a fast or medium pace bowler in his five innings. Every other ball was "torture by spin."

© PTI