London [UK], July 1 : Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes that signs are looking ominous for Marnus Labuschagne as they continue to increase their lead in the second Test match of the Ashes 2023 series.
Australia have a firm grip on the second Test match as they ended Day 3 on a strong note with opener Usman Khawaja continuing his purple patch and stitching up valuable partnerships with David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne to take Australia's lead beyond 200 runs at the end of rain-affected day three.
At the end of day three, Australia managed to put up a score of 130/2, with Khawaja (58*) and Steve Smith (6*) unbeaten.
But once again it was Labuschagne who was once again left behind but still looked to be much more comfortable at Lord's in comparison to the first Test at Edgbaston.
While speaking on The ICC Review, Ponting said there were positive signs in both of Labuschagne's knocks at Lord's, and he hinted that a big score should be just around the corner for him.
"He played and missed a few times, but he scored more freely which is the biggest concern I had with him. It looked like he was losing a lot of his scoring options. The fact that he was able to tweak things a little bit and change things a little bit between games is a great sign for him," Ponting said.
He was also asked if he had passed on any advice to the Australian batter, but Ponting said that he kept things short after watching the team in the nets prior to the second Test.
"I had a really brief chat (with Marnus). I actually took my son Fletcher to training for two days in a row to watch the Aussies here at Lord's and we sat behind the nets, and I got a chance to watch Marnus and what he was working on. I actually just mentioned a few words to him through the net about a few things, but he's a very fast learner as well," Ponting added.
"He wouldn't have been happy with the way that he played in the first few innings here in the UK and he makes small adjustments all the time. I think what he did from Edgbaston to here worked for him as well. But I spoke to Pat Cummins about some of the things that I could sort of see and identify with Marnus, and hoped that Pat would maybe mention a few of those things as his own observations rather than being mine," Ponting signed off.
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