It is safe to say that Ricky Ponting is arguably the greatest cricketer to have ever played cricket as well get greatest Aussie cricketer of all time. Ponting proved how good a cricketing brain he had when he predicted Shaw’s mood of dismissal. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting predicted Prithvi Shaw’s exact mode of dismissal seconds before the India opener was bowled for a second-ball duck after India opted to bat first in the historic first-ever day-night Test match against Australia in Adelaide on Thursday. Ponting who was in the commentary box for 7 cricket when play began with Starc taking the ball for Australia and Shaw taking guard for India, explained how the young India opener has a tendency to leave a gap between his bat and pad while playing in-coming deliveries.
“If he does have a chink in his armour it’s the ball which does come back into him,” Ponting said after Shaw defended Starc’s first ball, which was pitched on a good length and went on with the angle. “He’s very comfortable playing the ball away from his body. He does get his head in line with the ball but he doesn’t commit his front foot to the line of the ball and quite often leaves a big gap between bat and pad and that’s where the Aussies will target,” Ponting said as Starc started his run-up for the second ball. Ponting is well aware of Shaw’s weaknesses as the Australian great has been working with the India right-hander in the IPL for two seasons now. Ponting is the head coach of Delhi Capitals, the franchise for which Shaw opens the batting in the IPL and thus is well aware of Shaw’s strengths as well as his weaknesses. India preferred Shaw over Gill despite the former being horribly short of runs in the warm-up matches ahead of the four-match series. The dismissals of Prithvi Shaw in both the innings continued his woes where he has failed to score big ever since his comeback from a eight-month ban and an injury. In both the warm-up games, he struggled while opening the innings.
India had already announced their playing XI on Wednesday for the pink-ball Test, choosing Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal as openers. Wriddhiman Saha has been included as the wicketkeeper in the XI ahead of Rishabh Pant, who scored a century in the Day/Night practice match against Australia A. It is now to be seen if India persist with Shaw or go for KL Rahul pr Shubhman Gill in the second Test match.