And Ponting says that Head needs to work out a plan to get through that initial phase of attack from England's bowlers
Ricky Ponting. Pic/AFP
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is ready to offer some technical advice to his compatriots Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head ahead of the second Ashes 2023 Test against England in Lord's, set to be played from June 28.
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Australia's two-wicket win in the first match of the new ICC World Test Championship cycle against England featured a number of superb individual performances. But Labuschagne and Head were not among those to shine, with the world’s third and fourth-ranked Test batters both struggling to find their best form at Edgbaston.
Labuschagne's Test career has been a sparkling success in the five years since his debut, but only one of his 10 centuries has come outside Australia, and his average on the road is more than 30 runs down on his home figures.
Ponting knows a thing or two about scoring runs, with only Sachin Tendulkar scoring more in the history of the Test game. And his record in England isn’t the worst either, with Ponting scoring four away Ashes centuries and averaging 41.79 across his Test career in English conditions.
The former Aussie skipper feels that Labuschagne needs to go back to basics to find success in the current Ashes series, and that he is happy to speak one-on-one if the 28-year-old wants to.
"I'll wait for them to come and ask me. It's not my place, I'm not one of the coaches, I'm just a past player that's sitting back and analysing what a lot of these guys are doing," Ponting said on The ICC Review.
"But I would like to catch up with him and have a chat about his batting, because I think what I've seen over the last couple of weeks, as far as I'm concerned, I think he's over complicating things a little bit.
I think he has to trust and believe in what's made him the No.2-ranked Test batsman in the world for the last couple of years and go back to trusting that. That's all I'd say to him really. I would actually tell him to go and watch some footage and watch some video of when he's actually played his best, and remember those things and go and do that all over again," he added.
Labuschagne's teammate Head also struggled in the first Test, with England peppering the Aussie No.5 with short-pitched bowling.
Head was well set before India moved to the same tactic in the ICC World Test Championship Final earlier this month, going on to make the game’s highest
score of 163.
And Ponting says that Head needs to work out a plan to get through that initial phase of attack from England's bowlers.
"Firstly, he's now going to be aware that it's going to happen. He's going to expect that," the former skipper said.
"So therefore I think he has to work at it in his own mind. What's the best way for him to combat that type of bowling? Is it going to be to take it on? Is he going to have success if he tries to hook and pull balls that are into his body? Does he find a way to be able to duck and weave and get out of the way a bit better and try and wear the bowlers down?," he added.
Heading into the second Test at Lord's, Ponting believes that the main threat to Head will be if England shuffle their bowling attack to bring in the pace of Mark Wood.
"I mean, the thing with these sort of plans generally in Test cricket is there's only normally one bowler in a team that can do it. And we saw that even the other day with (Ollie) Robinson, he's not really going to worry about you doing it. Stuart Broad was probably their quickest bowler last week," Ponting said.
"Ben Stokes has been the enforcer for England in the past doing that, but his body's not going to allow him to do that role for England either. Coming into Lord’s, it could be Mark Wood. They might bring Wood into the team, which offers something a bit different. He’s obviously a lot quicker and bowls a really good short ball.
"He (Head) has to be aware of it, and if there is only the one bowler in the team that he thinks can do it, then find a way to get through that one spell. If they're running in and trying to bowl really fast, they can only do it for three or four overs. If you can get through that, then you're going to be fine," he concluded.
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