MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Australia’s selectors need to show faith in their top six batsmen after undermining their confidence by chopping and changing the order during the recent Ashes series defeat, former captain Ricky Ponting has said.
Australia’s 3-0 loss in England was marked by a string of calamitous batting collapses, as selectors dropped players and moved them up and down the order in a fruitless search for a winning formula.
With the first test of the return Ashes series starting in Brisbane next month, Ponting said there was no quick fix for Australia’s woes and that selectors needed to decide on the nation’s best batters and nurture them. “I think everybody on the outside has been a little bit worried about what the next generation of players have got, particularly on the batting side of things,” Ponting said in comments published by The Australian newspaper yesterday.
“Everyone acknowledges we have good depth of fast bowling, but where the next Michael Clarke is going to come from in the batting department is what everyone is concerned about.