‘Keep your fingers crossed and hope … ‘: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting identifies his top order for Ashes | Cricket News

Australia legend and former skipper Ricky Ponting (Image via Getty Images)

Former Australia captain and legend Ricky Ponting believes the current batting line-up will remain unchanged for the first Ashes Test and the team’s opening home series of the new World Test Championship cycle. He also defended struggling opener Sam Konstas, who has faced criticism after a poor run of form.Despite a 3-0 Test series win in the Caribbean, questions remain over Australia’s batting unit, which crossed the 300-run mark just once in the series. Most of their runs came from the lower order, with bowlers like Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, and Josh Hazlewood stepping up to dominate the West Indies. In the final innings of the series, the hosts were bowled out for just 27 runs.Looking at the side’s performance in the recent Tests, Ponting said, “The (batters) that they’re talking about the last couple of weeks in particular, have been (Sam) Konstas and (Usman) Khawaja, and then there was some talk about Cameron Green, if he was a long term No. 3 three or not.”“(Green’s) second innings in the West Indies (in the last Test) might have just put some of that to bed. As tough as those conditions were to bat for as long as he did in trying conditions, he might have silenced a few of those critics,” Ponting stated, while speaking on the latest edition of The ICC Review.“I think with where they’re at, I think the Ashes line-up is going to be like it is right now. I think that’s what they’re going to be starting with, and you keep your fingers crossed and hope that those guys can get the job done at the start,” he said.Konstas has managed just one half-century in his first 10 Test innings and averages 16.30. His debut fifty came against India in the Boxing Day Test, but he has struggled since. Ponting said the youngster had been thrown into a tough situation.

“I read some really interesting quotes or a story written by (Australian journalist) Robert Craddock about Sam Konstas, how the Australians sort of tried to protect him from what they thought was going to be a really difficult tour of Sri Lanka. They left him out there hoping to bring him in in the Caribbean where things might have been a little bit easier. Well, it’s been the opposite. It’s been the exact opposite of that.“The first Test of the Ashes will be played in late November, around four months from now.