Amid a below-par batting performance in the 2021-22 Ashes series, Steve Smith has received support from former Australia captain Ricky Ponting. The 32-year-old could register only 244 runs at an average of 30.50. Despite his poor form, other players stepped up and Australia cruised to a 4-0 Ashes win over England.
Speaking to cricket.com.au, Ponting said, “The standards that he’d set himself for so long, for that three – or four-year period where he took batting to another level, to try and maintain that for four or five or six years no-one’s ever done it, and no-one will probably ever do it”.
“You’re going to have your ups and downs and if he’s averaging (in the thirties) in Australia on the back of a couple of lean years, most other batsmen would take that.”
“I know what he’s like and he will look back at this even though Australia has won the series… he’ll look back at his own game and break it down and ask himself those questions as to why things haven’t worked out as much as he would have liked,” said Ponting.
“He will come up with the right answers because the best players are the best problem solvers, and if he has got a problem… then he’ll work it out pretty quickly.”
