Two-time World-Cup Winning captain Ricky Ponting has supported Steve Smith to emerge from his “indifferent” form as Australia gears up for the eagerly awaited visit through India ahead of schedule one year from now.
Two-time World-Cup winning captain Ricky Ponting has supported Steve Smith to emerge from his “indifferent” form as Australia gears up for the eagerly awaited visit through India ahead of schedule one year from now, saying nothing bad can be said about the star player’s method.
Ponting figures the resistance groups might have tracked down ways of putting brakes on Smith’s free-flowing batting.
“The best way to describe it is, it (Smith’s form) has been indifferent. For four or five years, he has been so incredibly consistent, making consistently high scores, making four, five, or six hundred in a Test match calendar year and he hasn’t been able to do that in the last couple of years,”
Ponting said on ‘The ICC Review’.
“I have watched him quite closely, and I don’t think there is anything technically there that has changed too much.
“Opposition teams maybe have finally started to work out the way they can slow him down from scoring quickly or have found some ways to attack him and get him out,”
he added.
Australia will visit India in February-March next year for a five-Test series, which is included in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 cycle.
Before the Test matches, Australia’s white-ball team will travel to India for a three-match T20I series.
While going into the tour Smith’s form will be essential for Australia, who are trying to qualify for their maiden WTC final.
While Smith has 28 Test hundreds of years to his name, just two of those have come since the Ashes series in England in 2019 and his unbeaten 145 against Sri Lanka earlier this month was whenever he first had arrived at triple figures since his splendid ton against India toward the beginning of 2021.
Smith has scored seven fifties during that range and Ponting has backed the former captain to get his magic back soon.
“But knowing Steve and how well he prepares himself and how deeply he thinks about his game, I don’t think it’s going to be too long before you see him back there scoring heavily again.”
Both India and Australia can finish among the top two in the WTC standings and reach the final.
“I think Australia’s chances hinge on the upcoming Indian tour, to be honest, and India’s chances are a little bit the same,”
Ponting said.
“It is always a much-anticipated series – Australia and India, whether it be in Australia or India – it’s much hyped up and talked about, the rivalry between the two countries is just growing year on year.”