It looked like a gutsy call, says Ricky Ponting after Tim Paine opted to bowl at The Oval

Australia is currently on the edge of winning the Ashes 2019 as they are leading the series 2-1. They are currently playing the last Test match at The Oval. With an eye of winning the urn, the Aussie captain won the toss and opted to field first which caught an eye of the former Ashes-winning skipper Ricky Ponting.

On the first day of the Test, Australia restricted England on 271-8 but at one stage they were reeling at 205-7. It was due to Buttler’s strong innings that the hosts reached close to 300. It looked to be a tough day for the Australians who dropped 3 legit catches of Joe Root and Steve Smith, Peter Siddle and skipper Tim Paine were involved in the reprieves given to the England skipper.

Ponting recalled a moment during the toss when he was with a couple of Australian players and how he had presumed that Tim Paine will opt to bat first.

“I was standing with a couple of the Aussie boys on the side of the wicket when looked over and said ‘Tim, you’ve won the toss’. I then said to the boys ‘we’re batting’ and then Painey went to the mic and said ‘we’ll have a bowl’. It looked like a gutsy call but they’re the sort of things you have to do as captain and make those big calls,” he said.

Result of the match will decide if it was correct or wrong

Though Ponting didn’t seem to be impressed with Paine’s decision at the toss he felt that the result of the match will determine if it was correct or wrong. While speaking to cricket.com.au he further said, “The result of the match will decide whether it was the right call or not. I never try to make too much of it until the game is over because really that’s where it will be the right decision or the wrong decision,”

Ricky also elaborated his conversation with the coach Justin Langer that took place on the matchday in which the latter said that the team trained better leading into this game than they have the whole series. Ricky Ponting is one of the legendary captains that Australia has ever produced, who led his country to a clean Ashes win by 5-0 in 2006.

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