Current Australian assistant coach, Ricky Ponting has come out in support of his under-fire top-order after their 36-run defeat to India, labeling the Aaron Finch-David Warner opening partnership as one of the best at ICC World Cup 2019.
He also defended the decision to swap Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja in the batting order while suggesting that Glenn Maxwell could bat up to the order in certain situations.
Australian top-order found it quite difficult to stand in front of Indian attack while chasing 352 at The Oval and Ponting believes that the opener’s inability to hit big shots early in the run chase and the untimely run out of captain Finch for 26 made the difference in the match.
Ponting told cricket.com.au, “Our batting was just a little bit off again. We seemed to find the field a lot in the first 10 overs. The run out happened at a really crucial time (the 14th over). The momentum had just started to turn there, Finchy had started to find the boundary a bit more frequently.”
The World Cup-winning captain continued, “We just needed someone at the top to go on and make a big hundred like Dhawan did and we would have been right in the game.”
Meanwhile, Warner played slowest innings of his ODI career (77-ball half-century) on Sunday which put Australia’s run rate down against India, but Ponting still believes that Warner-Finch pair is capable of playing match-winning innings with the very best for the Kangaroos.
Ponting noted, “Finch and Warner are probably as good as openers in the world. Finchy has turned things around really well in the last five or six months, Davey coming back has made runs. By his own admission today, (Warner) probably wasn’t at his absolute best. He hit the field too often early on and wasn't able to rotate as he would have liked.
It was always going to be a hard task. From about the 20-over mark on, something pretty spectacular was going to need to happen from not just one, but probably two of our batters. There's certainly enough skill and enough talent to turn it around pretty quickly.”
On the decision to swap Smith and Khawaja, the Coach said, “We wanted to have (favorable) left-hand, right-hand (match-ups) with those spinners and we thought Steven plays spin as well as anybody, so that was the only reason. It happens quite a lot in the modern game where you see that right-hand, left-hand combination, especially if they've got a lot of spin.”
Ponting signed off by saying, “If it's past 35 overs, you're probably not going to do it (bat Khawaja at four), Maxwell is going every day of the week after that. "In the right time and right moment, I think it can work really well.”
(With Cricket Australia Network Inputs)
