Australia may have scripted a 15-run win against West Indies in their second ICC World Cup 2019 tie to stand strong in the top half of the points table, but their top-order succumbed to a barrage of bouncers from the Windies attack and left assistant coach Ricky Ponting with more on his table to ponder upon. Taking it as a wake-up call before their India clash, Ponting is eager to work with Usman Khawaja and Glenn Maxwell in tackling bouncers.
“I’ve got some notes written in my book about that exact thing,” Ponting told cricket.com.au. “I just want to know what’s going through his mind. For me, being back involved in the team now, I want to understand what they are thinking about at different times. It’s not always just about the execution, it’s about what’s going inside your mind that causes the poor shots.
“Usman got hit again … so he’s had a few hits in the last few weeks. I haven’t spoken to him (to see) if he’s rattled, but that’s part and parcel of top order batting against brand new balls against guys who are bowling 140 kph an hour. You’ve got to find a way to cope and a way to get through hostile spells knowing that it’s not going to last forever.”
Following the dismissal of Khawaja, Maxwell played a hook shot off only his second delivery in the innings and skied a simple catch to walk back for a duck.
“It’s a bit of an uncharacteristic shot from (Maxwell) as well, he’s not a natural hooker and puller of the ball anyway,” said Ponting. “These are the things I want to ask him about as well when we finish up tonight, just get inside their heads a little bit. It’s just a little bit of a blip in the radar that we’ll have a chat about and make sure we’re prepared for the next game.
“It could very well be … a wake-up call. Just understanding that if you are under pressure in big games like World Cup games, finding a mechanism or a way to get through (is important). It could be just a good learning curve for those guys at the top and hopefully, they’ll bounce back strong.”
