New Delhi, Nov 2
Legendary Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has backed batter Nathan McSweeney to open the batting with Usman Khawaja in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India, starting on November 22 in Perth.
Interestingly, Ponting had endorsed for young Sam Konstas to fill in the opening position vacancy post David Warner's retirement. "I was put on the spot about a week ago, and I sort of immediately went to the young guy, Sam Konstas. He had come off back-to-back hundreds against South Australia."
"Then I thought a bit more about it and, he is so young and he has probably not even played on grounds like Optus (Perth) Stadium or at The Gabba. He wouldn't have played a pink-ball (match) at Adelaide Oval either. So there's a lot of things that stack up against the young guy, although there's no doubt that he's got talent."
"Another thing that I'd said then was that I don't think they'd go back to a (Cameron) Bancroft or (Marcus) Harris because if they're willing to do that they would've done it the last year," said Ponting on latest episode of The ICC Review show.
Coming in at number four, McSweeney impressed again on day three of Australia A's first four-day game against India A in Mackay, making an unbeaten 47 till stumps arrived, even as other specialist opening contenders failed to make a big score.
"So, the only name left for me more or less is Nathan McSweeney, who is Queensland-born now playing for South Australia. He got the most out of any of those guys from the 'A' game in Australia at the moment."
"And he's more experienced. He has captained Australia A in the past, and he's captaining them now. So, I'm leaning towards McSweeney now for that opening role at the start of the Australian summer," added Ponting.
Ponting believes Konstas' time would come, especially given that Khawaja is 37 and is nearing the sunset of his Test cricket career, while adding the youngster can till then work on his issues in domestic cricket while facing the moving ball.
"And when Khawaja goes in about a year or so, then someone like Konstas has played another season or a half of (Sheffield) Shield cricket (domestic competition in Australia) and he might be ready to come in at the top of the order then. He's not the only person who has issues with the ball coming back in and the more exposure he gets to that type of bowling, the better off he is going to be."
"Which kind of backs up my point on McSweeney, maybe he needs 12 months of Shield cricket to face better bowling and play in different conditions and put a stamp on what his technique looks like for international cricket. He is a highly talented player, and I'm sure he'll get his chance to play for Australia."