4 min readAug 14, 2026 12:44 PM IST
With their lowest total against Bangladesh coming on Thursday in the first Test at Darwin, the Pat Cummins led Australian team made a sedate start to the opening Test match. While Australia were bundled out for a first innings total of 198 runs in 53 overs, Bangladesh were placed at 97 for 1 at the end of the day’s play and Friday has seen the visitors building a 88-run first innings lead over the hosts till Tea. Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has blasted the Australian team over their display of batting on the opening day and shared how there was a lot of early season rustiness in the Australian team.
“There was a lot of early-season rustiness. They haven’t played for a long time, but you can’t excuse some of the technical issues and flaws we saw from the top order in particular. I was surprised Australia actually chose to bat, especially with Bangladesh coming off just 54 in the warm-up game. The Australian seamers on that wicket yesterday morning would have been near-on unplayable,” Ponting said while speaking on SEN’s Fireball on Friday.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first at Darwin on Thursday. None of the Australian natters except Steve Smith could get past 30 runs with Smith playing a knock of 71 runs before he was removed by Hasan Mahmud. Australia had dropped Michale Naser, Todd Murphy and Brendan Doggett from the squad which played against England in Ashes at the start of the year and spinner Nathan Lyon made his return post the hamstring injury in the later part of the Ashes. With Usman Khwaja retiring, Australia has still not solved the opening slot problem with Jake Weatherald departing for a score of 23 on Thursday. Ponting, who had earlier spoken about Australian selectors going for players like Campbell Kellaway and Ollie Peake for the series against Bangladesh, shared how the Australian team missed an opportunity to get some young talent in the team. “When you win the toss and decide to bat, everyone is expecting a few more than 190 against an attack like that. I still feel like they missed an opportunity in these couple of games to look at some younger talent that we’ve got in Australia. Go with a bit of gut feel and pick on talent because what we’ve got in the current side now, and it has been for a couple of years, has not looked up to the mark of Test cricket level,” said Ponting.
The Australian squad sees all-rounder Cameron Green being the youngest in the team at the age of 27 years with the rest of players being above the age of 30. Ponting also shared how the current Australian team is the oldest since 1928 and with Australia set to play 21 Tests till the end of the World Test Championships Cycle, they need to rebuild. “Yesterday’s team is the oldest since 1928, so you talk about an ageing team and a rebuild. That’s the case. Cameron Green is the youngest in the team, and everyone else is well and truly above 30. They’ve got 21 Tests coming up until the end of the World Test Championship. They’re at home to New Zealand, they’re away to South Africa, and they’re away to India. Inevitably, they’ll be going through 16-18 players in this next little run. So I think organically it will start to happen where guys will be coming in and out just to try and manage them through until the end of it,” Ponting added.