Tips from a master as Ricky Ponting schools Aaron Finch

A green pitch in Perth will offer little respite for Australia’s struggling top order.

Opening batsman Aaron Finch consults with former captain Ricky Ponting at Optus Stadium. Picture: AAP

The Perth pitch is green and ­already cracking; the Australian batsmen who found it hard in ­Adelaide are going to find it harder here; and the Indian captain says no conditions can scare his more experienced side.

Ricky Ponting arrived back from a quick trip to India at 2am yesterday, but was at training working alongside Justin Langer with Aaron Finch ahead of this morning’s second Test.

The trio met in the middle of the new Optus Stadium and talked, then walked to the nets where they put it into practice.

Finch aimed a straight drive that squirted off the inside edge and muttered an obscenity to himself, then middled the next half dozen as Langer repeated “one step, one step” over and over, urging the inexperienced opening batsman to get his weight moving forward. In a nearby net, Peter Handscomb appeared to have been paying attention and moved his starting position a step or two forward.

Earlier at Indian training Ishant Sharma worked to pull his front foot back a step after he lost a wicket to a no ball and was revealed to have bowled more than a dozen of them in one innings in the first match.

The day before, at the WACA, Mitchell Starc had attempted to find a bit of rhythm at an optional training session.

The turnaround between Tests is short and everywhere you look mechanics are trying to fix wobbling wheels on moving vehicles.

Finch remains at the top of the order in an unchanged Australian line-up and Tim Paine backed the opener to attack the ball.

Paine said of the opener: “He needs that one score to get a little bit more self belief at Test level that we know he has got at international T20 and one-day cricket.

“You are not going to succeed in international cricket unless you stick to your strengths. If he does he will come good for us.”

It is going to be a fascinating Test match at the new stadium. It may be as uncomfortable for the batsmen as it is for those diehards who booked tickets in the shade behind the bowler’s arm on the top tier, but were banished to where the sun shines hard because Cricket Australia decided to close that level and save some money.

Curator Brett Sipthorpe, channelling Jeff Thomson, said he wanted to see fear in the eyes of the opposition and he was delighted by the results of his first drop-in Test wicket.

Paine said it would be a good toss to lose, if only to stay on the bowlers’ Christmas card list.

“With the heat … it’s probably going to break up and we’ll see some cracks in it late in the game,” he said. “It’s going to be very hot so it is going to be hard to put a team in when it’s 40C. I am not sure the bowlers would speak to me again.”

Indian captain Virat Kohli was calm, even though two members of his side have not made it from the second Test to the first. Batsman Rohit Sharma has a lower back injury. He will most likely be replaced by Hanuma Vihari, who has played just one Test. Ravi Ashwin has a stomach strain and is likely to be replaced by left arm orthodox Ravi Jadeja, who brings runs (average 32) and wickets (185 at 23.5) and an ability to turn the ball back into left handers.

The visitors also have two seamers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav, in their squad of 13, which gives them further options but it would be extra­ordinary if they went with a four-pronged pace attack.

Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc has copped a lot of criticism from former players for his performance in Adelaide, but Paine dismissed it and said it could work in his favour.

“One thing I know about Starcy is when he cops a bit of criticism he takes it pretty personally and that sometimes gets the best out of him,” the skipper said. “We know his best is the best.”

Kohli said his side was looking forward to playing on a lively wicket. “We’re not alien to pitches like these; we’ve played many times on these kind of wickets,” the skipper said. “We know what to expect.

“On a lively wicket with a lot of grass on it and the surface being hard you are as much in the game as the opposition.

“We are confident on the percentage of chances we have and we will build on that. Australia will be a strong team at their home conditions and on a wicket like Perth which probably offers you more than other pitches in ­Australia.”