After Australia’s collapse in the first Test against Bangladesh, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has slammed their batters. He said that the hosts’ batting standard has been below Test level in the last couple of years as well. Australia were bowled out for 198 in the first innings in Darwin on Thursday, August 13. Bangladesh ended the day at 96/1 in their first innings and were 181/2 at Lunch on Day 2 as well.

Speaking on SEN’s Fireball, Ponting said, “There was a lot of early-season rustiness. They haven’t played for a long time, but you can’t excuse some of the technical issues and flaws we saw from the top order in particular. I was surprised Australia actually chose to bat, especially with Bangladesh coming off just 54 in the warm-up game. The Australian seamers on that wicket yesterday morning would have been near-on unplayable.”

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“When you win the toss and decide to bat, everyone is expecting a few more than 190 against an attack like that. I still feel like they missed an opportunity in these couple of games to look at some younger talent that we’ve got in Australia. Go with a bit of gut feel and pick on talent because what we’ve got in the current side now, and it has been for a couple of years, has not looked up to the mark of Test cricket level,” he further added.

Speaking on the same show, Ricky Ponting also shared that Australia have an ageing Test side.

“Yesterday’s team is the oldest since 1928, so you talk about an aging team and a rebuild. That’s the case. Cameron Green is the youngest in the team and everyone else is well and truly above 30. They’ve got 21 Tests coming up until the end of the World Test Championship. They’re at home to New Zealand, they’re away to South Africa, and they’re away to India. Inevitably, they’ll be going through 16-18 players in this next little run. So I think organically it will start to happen where guys will be coming in and out just to try and manage them through until the end of it,” Ricky Ponting concluded.