Perth will suit Australia more than India: Ponting

GBnews 24 desk//

Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting believes that Perth, where the second Test is set to take place, will suit Australia more than visitors India despite the hosts losing the first Test by 31 runs.

India hold a 1-0 lead in the four-match Test series after winning the opening Test for the first time on Australian soil. Ponting, however, feels that Australia will hold an edge over the visitors in the second Test. Speaking to cricket.com.au, Ponting said, “I think Perth will definitely suit our guys a lot more than the Indian players, but the Aussies need to bounce back pretty quickly. 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.”

Stressing on the need to learn from mistakes, Ponting said, “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.”

Backing Aaron Finch, who got out for nought and 11 in the two innings of the first Test, to open the Australian innings in Perth, Ponting said, “Why wouldn’t they do that for this game if that’s their best line-up? I just think that would 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.”