Ricky Ponting: Matthew Renshaw selection understandable, but he must bounce back

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting says he can understand the reasons for Travis Head’s shock omission from the Test side.

Former Test captain Ricky Ponting says he “wasn’t that surprised” to see Travis Head left out for the opening match of Australia’s tour of India.

The shock omission of the dynamic left-hander caused a stir among fans and past players, including Steve Waugh, and this was amplified when his replacement Matt Renshaw was trapped lbw for a golden duck on day one of the Nagpur Test.

Ponting told the ICC Review podcast that while he could understand the dismay at the selection from some corners of Australian cricket, the writing had been on the wall for Head’s omission.

Ricky Ponting says he thought Australia had a plan in place weeks before to play Matt Renshaw over Travis Head in India. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“The more I thought about it, the fact that they played Matt Renshaw in Sydney to me meant they probably had other plans in mind for him,” Ponting said.

“Obviously, the most immediate plan was for him to bat in the middle order for Australia in this Test series against India.

“And when you look at that, if they’re going to keep him in, they couldn’t really afford to keep Travis Head in either because then they would have five left-handers in their top seven.”

Ponting said keeping Head in the team at Peter Handscomb’s expense would have played into the hands of India’s star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

“The other side of it is that Travis’ record outside of Australia and on the subcontinent is nowhere near as good,” Ponting said.

Matt Renshaw fell for a golden duck to Ravi Jadeja, who finished with five wickets. Picture: AFP

“So when you put all those pieces together, I actually wasn’t that surprised … there’s been a bit of an uproar here in Australia about ‘how could the selectors do this’?

“I know (Renshaw) was out first ball today, I’ll forgive him of that – the other thing to keep in mind is they’ve been over here for what is just about a week now, so they’ve done a lot of training, the coaches and selectors would’ve kept an eye on training and watched who was coping with the spin better than others.”

Ponting praised the technique of Head’s other potential middle order replacement Handscomb, who made 31 as Australia were bowled out for 177 on the first day.

India were 1-77 in reply at stumps, with captain Rohit Sharma unbeaten on 56 from only 69 deliveries.