Legendary Australian cricketer, Ricky Ponting has opened up on the role he has played in helping the Indian all-rounder, Axar Patel improve his batting, which has played a big role with the bat for India in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar trophy. Axar scored three vital knocks during the series, with the first two playing a role in India’s wins at Nagpur and Delhi.

The final one came in Ahmedabad where his innings took the pressure off, Virat Kohli. The all-rounder amassed as many as 264 runs in the series and was the third-highest run-getter behind Usman Khawaja and Virat Kohli. During a recent conversation with the ICC Review, Ponting said he knew that Axar had a certain amount of batting skill and they made just a few technique changes to help him get better with the bat.

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Explaining the same, Ricky Ponting said, “I’ve known Axar for a long time and he was only a young boy in the squad at Mumbai when I first went there. I’ve known that there’s been a certain amount of batting skill there that really, apart from the last couple of years, he hadn’t really been showing at the IPL level or even at the international level. We just opened up his hips and his shoulders a little bit. So he was a bit more chest-on towards the right-arm fast bowlers.”

Ponting said that Axar’s only weakness in his game was the shirt ball directed at his body. The former Australia captain felt he was weak in that aspect because the Indian all-rounder was too side-on. Ponting revealed that Axar was a fast learner and was able to pick things up quickly.

Elaborating the same, Ricky Ponting said, “If there was ever a weakness in his game, it was the short ball that was sort of directed at his body. We just tried to open him up a little bit, which gave him a little bit more access to the ball. He’s always been a beautiful offside player. You know, his cover driving and cutting is as good as anyone’s. And if anything, he was just a little bit too blocked off to be able to score well on the leg side.”

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He further added, “So, therefore, he was a fast learner and was able to pick things up really quickly and change his technique enough to show really, really good improvement really early on. I want to get a bit more out of him at the Delhi Capitals this year, that’s for sure. A few times last year we sort of batted him up a little bit higher. I think he’s good enough to bat No.6 probably in an IPL team.”