'I must admit I was a little surprised' - Ricky Ponting opens up on Mitchell Starc's omission from Ashes opener

The much-awaited Ashes 2023 finally got underway on June 16 at Edgbaston as England and Australia locked horns in the first Test. England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat first as their opener Zak Crawley introduced Australia to their ‘Bazball’ style of play by scoring a boundary off the very first ball of the match against Australian captain Pat Cummins.

Seeing England attack right from the word go, Cummins immediately responded with some field changes as he took a man out of the slip cordon and put him on the boundary fence. In just the third over, Australia had just two men in slips and three on the boundary. The defensive ploy didn’t go down well with former Australia captain Ricky Ponting who criticized the tactics in the commentary box.

“They’ve gone defensive straightaway. I must admit, I’m not a huge fan of that deep backward point as a starting option. Cummins’ best ball is too easily scored off there as far as I’m concerned,” said Ponting on the Sky Sports Cricket coverage.

Ponting further commented on Australia benching their star left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc for the first Test and said that he was left surprised by his omission.

“I must admit I was a little surprised. Mitchell Starc wasn’t at his best last week, there’s no doubt about that. He was three months without games leading into that game, as was Pat Cummins, who also looked a little out of his rhythm,” said Ponting.

Australia took three wickets in the first session

Notably, Starc was benched to make way for Josh Hazlewood who missed out on the World Test Championship final 2023 due to an injury.

Meanwhile, the first session of the first Ashes Test was full of action as England scored a run rate of over 4.5. Australia managed to get three wickets as they dismissed Zak Crawley (61), Ben Duckett (12), and Ollie Pope (31) to leave England at 124/3 in 26.4 overs at Lunch on Day 1. Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, and Scott Boland picked up one wicket each for the visitors.