Australia’s two-time Men’s ODI World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting has asked for leg-spinner Adam Zampa to step up and win some matches for the team ahead of their second match against South Africa to go off the mark in the tournament.
Zampa came back into action for Australia in their opening clash against India at Chennai only in the 18th over. But KL Rahul took him for three fours in the opening over and from their onwards, he couldn’t play a decisive hand in the match as India won by six wickets, with his figures reading as 0-53 in eight overs.
“I actually think they’ve got enough with Zampa and Maxwell in that side, they’ve got enough. But the bottom line is, Zampa just hasn’t been good enough in the last seven or eight One Dayers that he’s played.
“You look back to the warmup games and even the series in South Africa before they arrived, he hasn’t been taking wickets and he’s been going for a lot of runs. He’s such a huge part of that side, when he bowls well, Australia usually win. They need him to step up and win some games,” said Ponting on SEN Radio.
Zampa and Glenn Maxwell are the only spin options in the Australian side, with Ashton Agar missing out due to a calf injury. Ponting also called upon Australia to prioritise their spin bowling arsenal against South Africa.
“They have got some big decisions to make. The question that’s come up the most, I think since the end of the first game against India was, do they have to get a try and get another specialist spinner into their starting XI
“They’re talking about Maxwell being a specialist spinner, but you’ll see that a lot of other teams have got more than two options. The interesting thing for me was watching them in the warm-up game and they used Labuschagne to bowl quite a bit in those games, they gave David Warner a couple of overs in one game against Pakistan I think it was.
“Steve Smith even rolled his arm over. There’s no doubt they’re looking for spinning options because they probably feel that the cupboard is a little bit bare there,” he elaborated.
Ponting signed off by saying Australia can ill-afford to lose their second straight fixture in the tournament. “In a World Cup you don’t want to go zero and two in any World Cup tournament you play. They played I think the team that looks most equipped to win in India.
“India seems to me to be a really powerful side and South Africa have had the wood on us in the last few games. They’re going to have to turn the tables and turn the tables quickly tonight.”
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