Everyone behaves like an eight-year-old when Ponting is around, reveals Aaron Finch

The 44-year-old former Australian captain Ricky Ponting was appointed as assistant coach of the Australian team following the resignation of David Saker. Punter took up the job right before Australia‘s limited-overs tour of India, where the visitors surprisingly won the five-match ODI series 3-2 after initially trailing by 0-2. Now the entire bunch of Australian players are obsessed with impressing their hero and coach Ponting.

Meanwhile, Finch has evolved himself has a deserving leader and an improved batsman. Australia’s barren days came to an end when their captain made a brilliant 93 off 99 hence giving them a series-defining victory over India in Ranchi. Usman Khawaja, previously considered a red-ball specialist, is now a wonder in ODIs too and one of the most valuable finds prior to the World Cup. Finch has admitted that the team is now moved ahead of the “scars” of the ball-tampering incident that took place last year.

Call it a coincidence or just Ponting’s impact, the transformation of the Australian team since the two-time World winning captain joined is remarkable. After their win over India, the team went to UAE and whitewashed the hosts Pakistan with a 5-0 victory. Now Australia will be walking into the tournament as ‘favourites’ again, something which seemed distant only a few months back. The estranged duo Steve Smith and David Warner have made their comeback into the team and have only added value to the brigade. 

These cricketers have watched and derived inspiration from the legend Ponting and as the Australian skipper Aaron Finch has revealed, the players behave in front of Ponting “like eight-year-old girls around Justin Bieber”. Punter has previously worked only short-term with Australia’s ODI and T20I teams. 

Everyone wants to impress Punter, reveals Finch

“The boys all want to impress ‘Punter’,” Finch was quoted saying by cricket.com.au. Everyone wants to impress Punter, you should see them – it’s like eight-year-old girls around Justin Bieber when Punter’s around the changeroom,” he said.

“It’s embarrassing, but it’s great,” Finch mentioned talking about the changing behaviour of the players when Ponting is around.

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