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If Smith has got a problem, he'll work it out pretty quickly: Ponting

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Last updated on 17 Jan 2022 | 03:36 AM
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If Smith has got a problem, he'll work it out pretty quickly: Ponting

Smith managed 244 runs in eight innings at an average of just over 30 - his least prolific Ashes campaign

Australia clobbered England 4-0 in the Ashes series but their ace batter Steve Smith had a pretty mediocre series with the bat. The right-hander managed 244 runs in eight innings at an average of just over 30 - his least prolific Ashes campaign.

"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," Ricky Ponting told Cricket.com.au.

Smith almost single-handedly helped Australia retain the Ashes in England in 2019 but that wasn’t the case this time around, with the likes of Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, David Warner and Usman Khawaja all scoring more runs than him. However, Ponting believes it won’t take Smith too much time to bounce back.

"The other interesting dynamic with (Smith) is the Marnus factor and even other guys that have come in and have dominated like he did. There are other guys that are helping out now. There's lots of things that we can probably think about and ask questions about, but it's not going to be long (before Smith bounces back)," said Ponting.

"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. 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."

Ponting said he didn’t really mind Australian batters getting caught at deep square leg and fine leg while trying to pull and hook England’s tearaway paceman Mark Wood. “You know what, I actually don't mind seeing them get caught on the fence. I'd rather see them caught on the fence than getting caught down the leg side, or at short leg, or trying to evade one.

"Cam Green will learn from his first innings dismissal because he probably only had to get through another couple of balls and that might have been the end of (Wood's) spell. But I was critical (in 2019-20) when they didn't take (Neil) Wagner on and they just stood there and let him dictate. 

"If you're going to play the shot, you've just got to play it well. It's no different than any other shot. It's no different to a cover drive. When there's three slips and a gully waiting for you and you play a cover drive and you nick it, there's not ever much attention paid to that.

"But when you play a pull shot and get caught at deep square leg, there's always a bit more attention paid to that. So I don't mind seeing it."

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