India vs Australia: ‘Get a start, lock yourself in and you make sure you score big runs,’ Ricky Ponting on SCG pitch

Former captain Ricky Ponting has expressed his concern over Australia’s opening batsmen David Warner after the left-handed batsman return to the Playing XI and obtained dismissed cheaply. Warner scored solely 5 earlier than taking part in a unfastened stroke outdoors off stump to Mohammed Siraj. Also Read | Ind vs Aus, third Test, Day 1, HighlightsHowever, it was his transient keep within the center and the physique language displayed is what prompted just a few issues. Warner was not one hundred pc heading into the Test match and it was evident as he grimaced just a few occasions whereas he was out within the center. Ponting hopes Warner, who has been recuperating from an injured hamstring, hasn’t finished something worse to it. Also Read | Rishabh Pant will get trolled for dropping debutant Will Pucovski twice on Day 1 of Sydney Test“I think everyone knew that he probably wasn’t going to be 100 percent coming into the Test match,” he mentioned on Channel 7. “The only thing I hope is that he hasn’t tweaked it again, doing something more there. It was pretty much from that moment on that those loose shots started. So hopefully it wasn’t playing on his mind, hopefully he’s okay and hopefully we can just say that that’s the way David Warner plays a shot like that early on in a Test match.”Also Read | Mark Waugh slams David Warner after early exit, says ‘not a shot you’d play within the first 20 minutes of a Test’Ponting weighed in on the pitch used for the Sydney Cricket Ground, calling it very best for batsmen. Australia completed the opening day at 166/2 with debutant Will Pucovski (62) and Marnus Labuschagne (67*) scoring half-centuries, whereas Steve Smith obtained some runs below his belt ending the day unbeaten on 31. Ponting reckons it’s the kind of pitch the place offered the batsmen get themselves in, a marathon knock might be on the playing cards.“Looks like a great wicket, this. This looks like the sort of wicket where you get a start, lock yourself in and you make sure you score big runs. Both these guys have got off to good starts, they look comfortable, they really have to capitalise now,” he identified.