Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting was left unimpressed with Azhar Ali, as well as the Pakistan bowlers on Day 1 of the Day-Night Test at Adelaide.
Pakistan had a forgetful first day during the day-night Test at Adelaide. Despite making a bright start to the match, Pakistan failed to contain David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne, courtesy poor tactical decisions and sloppy efforts on the field. As a result, the duo went on to break the record for the highest partnership in a day-night Test, adding 361 runs for the second wicket.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has justifiably come down hard on Pakistan captain Azhar Ali, slamming the 34-year-old for his tactical ineptness. He also talked about Pakistan's bowling attack, insisting that it is 'not the most skilled' one.
"Terrible. He just looks like he’s a long way off the mark, Azhar Ali. He’s only captained 16 first-class games in his life, so he’s a young captain in charge of a young bowling team and they look like they just need a bit more experience at the helm," Ponting told cricket.com.au.
"It’s obviously not the most skilled bowling attack of all time. But that’s where you need the captain to be able to help out and set certain fields for you, and tell you exactly what he wants you to do as a bowler. It doesn’t look like they’ve had that direction out on the field. Tactically, he looks like he’s been a fair way behind."
Naseem Shah, the 16-year-old Pakistan pacer who entered the starting XI to significant hype in the Brisbane Test, was left out of the second game at Adelaide. Ponting criticised such inconsistency in the team selection.
"It’s not anything personal against Azhar Ali, I’m just saying what I’ve seen on the field. I absolutely feel sorry for him. Even the fact they debuted a 16-year-old (Naseem Shah) in Brisbane and they couldn’t use him properly for whatever reason, and he’s not playing this game.
"And he just doesn’t look like he’s got the cattle in that bowling group to make any sort of inroads at all. He was on his heels, he was sloppy, he picked it up lazily and threw it off balance. That to me just says he’s probably not engaged in the game enough."
The former Australian captain was left unimpressed with the lack of efforts from the Pakistan bowlers as well, stating that one cannot depend on batsmen to make mistakes.
"Mohammad Abbas is bowling in the low 120s with no movement, Shaheen Afridi looks likely and lively, he looks like a good bowler, but Musa Khan has no control, is short and is a nice skiddy pace (for the batsmen).
"They’re relying on batsmen to make mistakes. And when you’ve got hungry batsmen out there like these two are, they’re not going to give their wicket away."
