Ricky Ponting showed faith in Steve Smith to come good after a disappointing outing in recent Ashes 2021-22, saying that the best players are the best problem solvers. Although Australia outclassed England in all departments to retain the Ashes by the margin of 4-0, Steve Smith’s inconsistent run with the bat was a sort of concern for them. 

The right-hander batter scored only 244 runs in five-match Test series at an average of 30.40, which is not promising for a player of his calibre. He did score two half-centuries but was mostly dismissed in the early phase of his innings during the series.

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Smith has also been under fire for not scoring a century since last year and for the first time since 2017 his Test average has dipped under 60. 

Talking about Steve Smith’s poor run of form, former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said that to maintain the kind of standards the right-hander set himself for long time is almost impossible for every batter. 

He, while highlighting that batters have their ups and downs, pointed out that despite being out of form, Smith has an average of 30, which most of the batters would take during their lean phase.

“The standards that he'd set himself for so long, for that three - or four-year period where he took batting to another level, to try and maintain that for four or five or six years no-one's ever done it, and no-one will probably ever do it. 

You're going to have your ups and downs and if he's averaging (in the thirties) in Australia on the back of a couple of lean years, most other batsmen would take that,” Ricky Ponting told Cricket.com.au.

Ponting said that even though Australia won the series, Smith will look back at his own game and will ask himself questions as to why things didn’t work out for him. He expected the right-hander to come up with the right answers, saying that the best players are the best problem solvers. 

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"I know what he's like and he will look back at this even though Australia has won the series... he'll look back at his own game and break it down and ask himself those questions as to why things haven't worked out as much as he would have liked. 

"He will come up with the right answers because the best players are the best problem solvers, and if he has got a problem... then he'll work it out pretty quickly,” he said. 

Ricky Ponting further said that with Marnus Labuschange and other batters chipping in, it has reduced the pressure on Steve Smith. 

“The other interesting dynamic with (Smith) is the Marnus factor and even other guys that have come in and have dominated like he did. There are other guys that are helping out now,” he said. 

(Cricket.com.au inputs)