‘Lock the kit bag away’ – Ricky Ponting advices Babar Azam to copy India's star batter to find his batting form

Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has given some sound advice to Babar Azam. The 30-year-old has struggled to run with the bat in 2024 and was out for yet another low score during the 1st ODI on Monday. Ahead of the second ODI in Adelaide on Friday, Ricky Ponting made a suggestion to Babar Azam. 

Ricky Ponting while speaking to ICC review said “Sometimes – and I think Virat was on record saying this – that little bit of a break that he had, he took himself away from the game for a while to freshen up and sort out some things that he needed to sort out”

Ponting also said “This might be exactly what Babar needs. Maybe Babar needs to get away for a while and stop trying too hard. Lock the kit bag away for a while, and think about something else and then hopefully come back recharged, because we know at his best he's as good as anyone going around. Hopefully, we get to see that in the back half of his career again” 

Pat Cummins exercises caution about Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s form 

Australian skipper Pat Cummins feels his team cannot read much into the lack of form with the bat from India’s two batting stalwarts. Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have struggled for form with the bat during the home season. The duo scored 133 and 192 runs each against Bangladesh and New Zealand causing worry amongst the fans. 

Pat Cummins while speaking to Hindustan Times said “Hard to know, really. Every player goes through a kind of good form, bad form. If you're going to have a long Test career, you're going to have those little patches. Our job is obviously to try and keep the Indian batters as quiet as we can so we'll wait and see. Those two are obviously some of India's more experienced players, so we'll see what happens”

Australian Test skipper further added “The WTC does provide an added motivation. We won it the last time around so we're desperate to go out and defend that title. That is kind of the other layer to this series. Obviously, you're trying to win every single Test match, but there's also more on the line with the World Test Championship points up for grabs. It's something we talk about a lot; we've got this series against India and then Sri Lanka afterwards which are our last two series in this cycle”