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Ricky Ponting came down heavily on Australia's selectors for choosing to "stick with what they know" as Bangladesh took control of the first day of the first Test in Darwin.
Australia are beginning a 12-month period where they'll play 21 Tests, ending with next summer's Ashes. During this period, they will also tour South Africa for the first time since the 2018 "sandpapergate" scandal, host New Zealand for four Tests and travel to India for a five-Test series.
Despite the long schedule ahead, Australia did not make any major changes to their squad for the two-Test series against Bangladesh. Cameron Green, 27, is the only player in the squad younger than 31.
Bangladesh made the most of the opportunity on the first day. On a pitch offering movement and bounce, Australia captain Pat Cummins chose to bat after winning the toss. The hosts were then bowled out for 198.
Steve Smith top-scored with 71 and was the only Australian batter to score more than 25. Bangladesh pacer Hasan Mahmud took his best Test figures of six for 55.
Bangladesh then reached 96 for one at stumps against Australia's pace attack. They trail by 102 runs going into the second day.
Ponting criticised Australia's decision not to use the series to introduce younger players. Speaking on Channel 7 at lunch, after Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne and Green had been dismissed cheaply, he said:
"So look, what’s the state of Australian cricket?" Ponting said. "This has been a very, very successful cricket team. [But] right now there are a couple of chinks in the armour and the selectors decided to stick with what they know. At the end of last season, I thought the time was right now to blood a couple of youngsters into these two Test matches."
Ponting felt Australia could have given Victoria opener Campbell Kellaway and middle-order batter Ollie Peake a chance against Bangladesh.
"At the end of last year, I said Kellaway and Peake were the ones that I wanted to have," he said. "And that’s the spots that were coming up in this side. So they decided not to do that. But my worry is, when do they do that? Are you going to debut these guys in South Africa against [Kagiso] Rabada and [Marco] Jansen and co? I think that would be a whole lot harder. So I just feel there’s an opportunity here that may have been missed."
Ponting also said Cummins' decision to bat first had surprised the Australian camp, but felt the batting performance could not be blamed only on that call.
"We were all surprised" by Cummins's decision, Ponting said.
"What I’ve seen today is just the same mistakes being made again, particularly by some of our top-order players," he said. "Almost sometimes an over-intent to try to score [from] the balls that aren’t quite there, hence Weatherald’s dismissal.
"And you look at Marnus and there’s a lack of intent to try to score, which builds pressure on him and keeps the bowlers in the game. And then he gets out the same way that we’ve seen a lot over the last couple of years."
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