Ponting backs McSweeney after Australia A’s victory in a game that seen none of the opening contenders take their chances.
Ponting believes Nathan McSweeney is the one who should be picked for the side that will face India.
While the specialist opening contenders continued to struggle against India A, Ricky Ponting has recommended Nathan McSweeney to take his place at the top of Australia’s Test lineup. This may be partially due to last-man standing. McSweeney made another strong showing in Mackay.
There is a lot of doubt for the senior team going into the second game in Melbourne next week because Sam Konstas, Cameron Bancroft, and Marcus Harris all started in a pursuit of 225 on a challenging ground but were unable to turn them into significant scores. McSweeney, on the other hand, started his innings at No. 4 and played well, finishing undefeated at 47.
Before shouldering arms to a ball from Mukesh Kumar that nipped back sharply and sent the off stump cartwheeling, Konstas produced several clean strokes through the off side. Ponting had earlier supported a call-up for Konstas, but he changed his mind after learning that the player had never played first-class cricket in Perth, Adelaide, or Brisbane, as Australia coach Andrew McDonald had pointed out last week.
“I thought a bit more about it, and he is so young and he has probably not even played on grounds like Optus Stadium or at the Gabba,” Ponting told the ICC Review show. “He wouldn’t have played a pink-ball [match] at Adelaide Oval either. So there’s a lot of things that stack up against the young guy, although there’s no doubt that he’s got talent.
“Another thing that I’d said then was that I don’t think they’d go back to a [Cameron] Bancroft or [Marcus] Harris – because if they’re willing to do that, they would’ve done it the last year.
“So the only name left for me more or less is Nathan McSweeney… he got the most out of any of those guys from the A game in Australia at the moment. And he’s more experienced. He has captained Australia A in the past, and he’s captaining them now. So I’m leaning towards McSweeney now for that opening role at the start of the Australian summer.”