Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has hit out at the hosts’ batters following a dismal Day 1 performance against Bangladesh in the ongoing first Test, adding that their early-season rustiness meant they were outplayed and outwitted by the visitors’ bowling line-up. Australia were bowled out for a paltry 198 after opting to bat first, with Bangladesh pacer Hasan Mahmud tearing through the line-up with figures of 6-55. Now, with Bangladesh’s lead crossing 150, the focus is back on Australia’s shoddy batting performance, where, barring Steve Smith (71), no one made a notable contribution.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has hit out at the hosts’ batters following a dismal Day 1 performance against Bangladesh in the ongoing first Test.
I was surprised Australia actually chose to bat, especially with Bangladesh coming off just 54 in the warm-up game. But when you win the toss and decide to bat, everyone is expecting a few more than 190 against an attack like that,” Ponting said on SEN’s Fireball. Calling out the national selectors for being hesitant to transition towards youngsters, Ponting pointed out that Australia have fielded their oldest Test side since 1928, with all-rounder Cameron Green (27) being the only under-30 player. “They’ve got 21 Tests coming up until the end of the World Test Championship (WTC). Inevitably, they’ll be going through 16-18 players in this next little run. “It has been at least 12 months where they have had the opportunity to make changes, especially with the batting group.
Because what we’ve got in the current side now, and it has been for a couple of years, has not looked up to the mark of Test cricket, “Go with a bit of gut feel and pick on talent. “There was a lot of early-season rustiness, they haven’t played for a long time, but you can’t excuse some of the technical issues and flaws we saw from the top order in particular. A few eyebrows were raised when Australia did decide to bat. It (change) is going to happen. They’re at home to New Zealand, they’re away to South Africa, they’re away to India. So I think organically it will start to happen where guys will be coming in and out just to try and manage them through until the end of it,” he noted. They have a lot of work to do, there’s a long way to go in this game, and right now I’m not sure what the odds suggest.
“The Australian seamers on that wicket yesterday morning would have been near-on unplayable. I still think Australia should be favourites even though yesterday went as badly as it did.
