Former Australian Test great Ricky Ponting has expressed his worries over Australia’s batting form as they lose their second Test to India by 8 wickets.
Ponting feels that the selectors need to rethink over the selection of players for the upcoming matches. He further added that the absence of David Warner has done a great deal of damage to Australia’s batting.
“They need Warner back, they need Smith to score runs, they need Labuschange to find the form of last summer as well,” Ponting said while talking to cricket.au.com.
Ponting criticised the Australian team, calling them frail without Smith and warner.
“(Labuschagne) has not looked to be in as good a touch as he was last summer and those three players are just so vitally important to this Australian lineup, it’s as simple as that. We saw the last tour out here (in 2018-19) with Smith and Warner not being there how frail Australia looked then.”
“(Australia) made 191 there, 195 and 200 here. That’s not batting in Test match cricket. And the worry I’ve got is how long it takes them to get those runs. That’s my issue.
“They’ve got to show some more intent. They can’t be scared of getting out. They’ve got to go out there and bat and score run and they’ve got to get them quicker than two-and-a-half runs an over because what we’ve seen from Adelaide to here if they’re trying to apply themselves and bat for long periods of time they haven’t been good enough to do that.”
Ponting feels that the Aussie’s need to work a lot to do if they want to their form back.
“They’ve got a lot of work to do. Whoever they pick in the next XI it’s going to be a great test of character for all of them.”
