Dubai: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said that Tim Paine and the Australian management should not panic and stick to the same XI and batting order for the second Test against India.
The former great further asserted that the team should stick with Aaron Finch as an opener and resist the urge to move him down the order after just one Test.
“Why wouldn’t they do that (move Finch down the order) for this game if that’s their best line-up?” Ponting told a website when asked about Finch’s position.
“I just think that’d 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.”
Former Test spinner Shane Warne backed all-rounder Marcus Stoinis to be handed a debut in Perth, replacing Peter Handscomb, but Ponting was against the change. “I’d have to leave it like it is,” he said. “They decided that was their strongest line-up going into this week and opinion shouldn’t change on the back of one game.”
While India have triumphed in the opening Test, Ponting said that the new-look Perth pitch, another drop-in wicket, should give the Australians an edge in the second Test, which starts on Friday.
“I think Perth will definitely suit our guys a lot more than the Indian players, but the Aussies need to bounce back pretty quickly,” he said.
“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.
“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.”
