Follow UsEdgbaston provided one of the flattest wickets for an opening fixture of a well–awaited Ashes series. In a Test match where runs were flowing like water, with Australia scoring 386 runs in the first innings and 282 runs in the second, Marnus Labuschagne had a rare off Test.
Not only was the right-handed batter dismissed for his first Test golden duck in the first innings, he just scored a total of 13 runs in the Test. In both the innings, the right-hander was dismissed poking deliveries outside the off-stump, with Stuart Broad finding an optimal solution to the Labuschagne problem for England.
In the aftermath of the rare failure, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting insisted that Labuschage must go back to the basics to succeed.
“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,” Ponting spoke on The ICC Review.
“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.”
On the other hand, Travis Head scored a half-century in the first innings before getting out cheaply for 16 in the second innings. But England had a set plan for the southpaw, with a barrage of short-balls targeting at him.
“Firstly, he's now going to be aware that it's going to happen. He's going to expect that," Ponting noted.
“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?”
When asked about what are the changes that he expects England to make ahead of the Lord’s Test, Ponting reckoned that there could be a place for the speedster Mark Wood.
“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.”