'Best players are best problem solvers' - Ricky Ponting backs Steve Smith to come strong after dismal show in Ashes

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting was quite convinced that Steve Smith will get back in form soon after a poor Ashes series recently. Smith scored 244 runs in five Tests at an average of 30.40 which is no way near his standards and his overall average has also dipped under 60 for the first time since 2017. This is the leanest patch for the batter ever since he had come into the Test arena for Australia.

After some extraordinary knocks in the previous Ashes, Smith was expected to be the toughest batter to dismiss for the England side which wasn’t the case in the recently concluded series. The right-hander did score a couple of 90s but the big hundreds did not come from his bat which the fans have been used to seeing from him. Despite his poor returns, Australia was able to comfortably win the Ashes 4-0 owing to some excellent team effort.

Steve Smith will come up with the right answers: Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting mentioned that Smith has set high standards so far which cannot be prolonged for a long time and expects every player to go through a tough phase at times. He added that the average of 30 wasn’t that bad to underline despite being out of form and explained the impact he can have when he is in form.

“The standards that he’d set himself for so long, for that three – or four-year period where he took batting to another level, to try and maintain that for four or five or six years no-one’s ever done it, and no-one will probably ever do it. You’re going to have your ups and downs and if he’s averaging (in the thirties) in Australia on the back of a couple of lean years, most other batsmen would take that,” Ponting told cricket.com.au

Ponting added that Smith will analyze his game in what has gone wrong so far and expects him to get the answers himself like all best players tend to find out. He added that it won’t be too long until Smith is back in form considering his consistency levels.

“I know what he’s like and he will look back at this even though Australia has won the series. He’ll look back at his own game and break it down and ask himself those questions as to why things haven’t worked out as much as he would have liked. He will come up with the right answers because the best players are the best problem solvers, and if he has got a problem. Then he’ll work it out pretty quickly.”

“There’s lots of things that we can probably think about and ask questions about, but it’s not going to be long (before Smith bounces back),” Ponting added