Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting bats for the inclusion of fast bowlers Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith for the home Ashes in December/January later.
Prior to the 5-Test riveting contest with England, Australia will host Afghanistan for a one-off Test. That Test would be the only match for Australia ahead of the Ashes – they don’t have any Test scheduled between the India series and the Afghanistan Test after pulling out of the tour of South Africa.
Observing the series loss to India, where Australia’s pace troika – Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc – seemed tired and fatigued by the fourth Test in Brisbane, Ricky Ponting suggests the selectors should look in for the extra pace and energy of Jhye Richardson, who played in a couple of Tests in 2019, and Riley Meredith, who has made his T20I debut this year.
“You can have the same sort of conversation with a Riley Meredith and a Jhye Richardson. They both have a chance of playing some Test cricket in that Ashes series and that might just spark the bowling group on a little bit as well,” Ricky Ponting told cricket.com.au.
Out of those three guys one of them will be batting in the middle: Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting, who led Australia to Ashes victory in 2006/07, names three batsmen – Travis Head, Moises Henriques, and Marcus Harris – out of which, he says, one should be playing in the middle-order in the Ashes following the axing of Matthew Wade.
While Harris played in the Brisbane Test as an opener, he would be replaced by Will Pucovski; Head, who had previously been the vice-captain as well, was dropped from the side owing to his dismal form; Henriques would find it tough to play as an all-rounder in Cameron Green’s presence.
“I think they’ve just got to work on who their best player is and if it’s Harris, if it’s Head, if it’s Henriques – work out who it is and give them a chance there. That’s probably just going to come down to the weight of runs. Out of those three guys, I think one of them will be batting in the middle,” the former skipper further opined.