With just a couple of days remaining for the 2nd Test of the Ashes 2023, Australia will be gearing up for the England challenge after having eked out a thrilling win in the series opener at Edgbaston. Both the teams will start afresh after what was a closely fought first Test which the tourists won by just two wickets in the final session of Day 5.
Australia will be hoping that two of their key batters – Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head – will overcome their struggles of the first Test.
The legendary Ricky Ponting, currently working as commentator for the ongoing series, thinks that Labuschagne needs to go back to basics to find success.
“I’ll wait for them to come and ask me. It’s not my place, I’m not one of the coaches, I’m just a past player that’s sitting back and analysing what a lot of these guys are doing,” Ponting said in the ICC Review.
“But I would like to catch up with him (Labuschagne) and have a chat about his batting, because I think what I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, as far as I’m concerned, I think he’s overcomplicating things a little bit.
“I think he has to trust and believe in what’s made him the No.2-ranked Test batsman for the last couple of years and go back to trusting that. I would actually tell him to watch some video of when he’s actually played his best, and remember those things and do that all over again.”
It was the Indian bowlers during WTC final who exposed Head’s struggles against the short deliveries. England have rightly made a note and used the strategy to keep him quiet.
“Firstly, he’s now going to be aware that it’s going to happen. He’s going to expect that,” Ponting said.
“I think he has to work at it in his own mind. What’s the best way for him to combat that type of bowling? Is it going to be to take it on? Is he going to have success if he tries to hook and pull balls that are into his body? Does he find a way to be able to duck and weave and get out of the way a bit better and try and wear bowlers down?” he added.
Ponting feels should Mark Wood made the cut in England’s playing XI for the Lord’s Test, he could turn out to be Head’s biggest challenge considering his express pace.
“Stuart Broad was probably their quickest bowler last week. Ben Stokes has been the enforcer for England in the past doing that, but his body is not going to allow him to do that role for England either.
“Coming into Lord’s, it could be Mark Wood. They might bring Wood into the team, which offers something a bit different. Hes obviously a lot quicker and bowls a really good short ball,” he said.
“He (Head) has to be aware of it, and if there is only the one bowler in the team that he thinks can do it, then find a way to get through that one spell.”
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