Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting says he always knew Marnus Labuschagne would become a great player. He has scored a hundred against New Zealand in the day-night Test at Perth on Thursday. Labuschagne made his Test debut against India in January this year and managed only 38 in that match but Ponting believed that he should be a part of the Ashes squad and he kept Ponting’s trust intact with wonderful performances.

“I actually said when he played his first game in Australia he looked as good as any of our batters,” Ponting told cricket.com.au. “He made a really good 30 and then got out to a really good catch to short mid-wicket. He’s made some changes, a few little technical things and he’s been hanging out with Steve Smith and getting the mental side of the game right, that’s what it looks like.”

“It’s been an amazing transformation. He averages over 40 in first-class cricket now, six or seven months ago that was in the low 30s. He’s certainly come on in leaps and bounds which is fantastic for him and Australian cricket,” he said.

Furthermore, he added that he was happy to see so many players stand up and build the partnership.

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“I actually think there’s a few pairs in this team, which is why I really like the look of this current team,” said Ponting. “David Warner and Joe Burns get along really well, you can see in the way they run and communicate in their opening partnership. Marnus and Warner have done pretty well when they’ve batted together and Smith and Labuschagne are like twins, they’re hanging out together all the time.”

“There’s some really good dynamics happening around the group, which is crucial in good teams, certainly in good teams I played in. We had that brotherhood of mainly the batters all sticking together and the bowlers sticking together but we had some pretty special partnerships, bonds in those groups,” Ricky Ponting concluded.