sohum
Executive member
India's batting line-up in 1989 along with their stats at the time and the final average:When Ponting debuted age 19 (ODI) and 20 (Test) in the mid-1990's.
The middle-order batsmen where: Boon, M. Waugh and S. Waugh and Blewett. I am unaware of the Indian line-up in the late 80's but I think Ponting would have debuted earlier if the team was weakner. So the strength of the Australian team is a reason for the Tendulkar's runs being more than Ponting's!
Name - 1989 - Final
K Srikkanth - 1927 @ 31.59 - 2062 @ 29.88
NS Sidhu - 685 @ 34.25 - 3202 @ 42.13
S Manjrekar - 784 @ 60.30 - 2043 @ 37.14
D Vengsarkar - 6498 @ 44.50 - 6868 @ 42.13
R Shastri - 3036 @ 33.73 - 3830 @ 35.79
M Azharuddin - 2224 @ 46.33 - 6215 @ 45.03
Kapil Dev - 4246 @ 30.99 - 5248 @ 31.05
Tendulkar would primarily have been competing with Manjrekar, Vengsarkar and Azharuddin for his spot in the middle order and you can see it was pretty tough competition (given that an average in the mid 40's was pretty good back in the 80s).
This is not to mention that the Australian team has only really started dominating world cricket some time in the mid-90s. Tendulkar debuted in 1989.