After losing the first ODI match against England, former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting says that Justin Langer will stay calm in the next ODI following Australia's defeat by 3 wickets. Ricky Ponting feels the head coach will not lose his control despite his team losing in the first encounter against England.
Australia were bowled out on 214 runs in the first ODI match to which England comfortably won the match with David Willey scoring the winning runs. When talking about the head coach, Ricky Ponting said, He'll be very calm, direct I guess but very calm," Ponting said of his colleague and former team-mate. "As a player, not so much, but he is calmer as a coach.
"He is very well prepared, well organised, but he is also that calming influence. Players know what he expects of them.
"The batting will be the focus, absolutely. We've talked a lot about the make-up of the side: was it a batsman light? It wasn't if your top order batsmen play well. That's the bottom line.
"Losing an early wicket, Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh's partnership looked very promising, but then Moeen Ali came into the attack inside the powerplay and made the very important breakthrough of Finch. Then the brakes went on.
"What Australia needed today was the guys that got in and got starts to go on and get big scores, on what we thought was a really good batting wicket - the 20s and 30s were never going to be good enough.
"You need four or five good performances from your XI to win an ODI game. Australia didn't get that today, while England had more consistent performers.
"Langer will look at the conditions in Cardiff first before seeing if anything needs to changed, as far as the batting line-up is concerned. I don't think he will panic at all.
"If they do go in a batsman light again, there will be even more responsibility placed on that top order."
Despite Australians getting bowled out on 214 runs, they had scalped 7 wickets of England to come back in the game but David Willey's decent batting performance took the home team to a win.
For Australia, it was Billy Stanlake who clinched 2 wickets for his side after conceding 44 runs in his 10 overs. Ricky Ponting also had a few thoughts on Billy Stanlake, he said "He is a player of the future, in all forms of the game. We've only seen him with a white ball in his hand so far, but anyone who can bowl 90 miles per hour, that's as tall as him, I think potentially he is a superstar."
(Inputs from SkySports)
