Perth track would suit Australia more than India, reckons Ricky Ponting

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting said that the surface in Perth would suit the hosts more than India in the second Test beginning on December 14.

India ended a 10-year drought by winning the first Test in Australia by 31 runs. The Virat Kohli-led side took a 1-0 lead in the four-match Test series with an aim to upstage the Aussies Down Under for the first time in 70 years.

“I think Perth will definitely suit our guys a lot more than the Indian players, but the Aussies need to bounce back pretty quickly,” said Ponting, as quoted by cricket.com.au.

Also read: Australia vs India: Prithvi Shaw resumes training after missing first Test

He also said that his countrymen would need to pull up their socks fast and learn from their failures in Adelaide.
They played pretty poorly this week and got within 30 runs. And that’s not saying India played at their absolute best either, but they’re absolutely capable,” said Ponting.

“There’s some positives to take from it but they’ve also got to take a good hard look at what they’ve done through this game and make sure they do it a lot better,” he added.

Ponting said Australia should not tamper with the batting order and keep the playing XI intact. He also backed Aaron Finch’s role as an opener adding that coach Justin Langer and skipper Tim Paine shouldn’t change their opinion.

“Why wouldn’t they do that for this game if that’s their best line-up?”, Ponting said when questioned if Finch could bat down the order.

“I just think that would be really reactionary. The selectors have made a decision, or whoever is setting the batting order, that they think Aaron Finch is the right guy to be opening the batting for Australia.

“When you start moving guys around, it just creates more uncertainty. Finch would potentially train differently next week than he had this week because he’s not opening (and) Usman has to train differently because he is opening.

“Little things like that would come into their minds. If I was them, I’d be tempted to keep it the same way,” he added.

Image credit-Cricket Australia