“Not up to Test level”: Ponting on Australia’s missed opportunity

• LISTEN LIVE: Day two of Australia v Bangladesh

Australia was outplayed, outwitted and outsmarted by Bangladesh on Day 1 of the first Test in Darwin.

The Aussies went in as unbackable favourites but came in at stumps well behind, dismissed for 198 before Bangladesh forced their way to 1/96.

Hasan Mahmud took 6/55 for the tourists while Steve Smith top-scored for the Australians with 71 as the only player to reach a half century.

Openers Travis Head (22) and Jake Weatherald (23) got starts, Marnus Labuschagne (1) failed, and Cam Green (13) gave his wicket away again.

Former Test captain and all-time Aussie great Ricky Ponting admitted there was some rust, but reckons the problems lie deeper than that, especially from a batting perspective.

“There was a lot of early-season rustiness, they haven’t played for a long time, but you can’t excuse some of the technical issues and flaws we saw from the top order in particular,” Ponting said on SEN’s Fireball.

“I was surprised Australia actually chose to bat, especially with Bangladesh coming off just 54 in the warm-up game. The Australian seamers on that wicket yesterday morning would have been near-on unplayable.

“A few eyebrows raised when Australia did decide to bat. But when you win the toss and decide to bat everyone is expecting a few more than 190 against an attack like that.

“I still feel like they missed an opportunity in these couple of games to look at some younger talent that we’ve got in Australia. I know the Sheffield Shield numbers aren’t outstanding of our young batters, but I think we might have to look a bit deeper than just what the numbers suggest.

“Go with a bit of gut-feel and pick on talent because what we’ve got in the current side now - and it has been for a couple of years - has not looked up to the mark of Test cricket level.”

The age of the Australian side was also in question, with Ponting expecting some changes to be made over the course of this next busy period of the World Test Championship cycle.

“Yesterday’s team is the oldest since 1928, so you talk about an ageing team and a rebuild… that’s the case,” Ponting added.

“Cam Green is the youngest in the team (at 27) and everyone else is well and truly above 30. It (change) is going to happen.

“They’ve got 21 Tests coming up until the end of the World Test Championship (WTC) - they’re at home to New Zealand, they’re away to South Africa, they’re away to India. Inevitably they’ll be going through 16-18 players in this next little run.

“So I think organically it will start to happen where guys will be coming in and out just to try and manage them through until the end of it.”

What if the unthinkable happens and the Aussies get rolled by Bangladesh? Does anything change?

“You would like to think so,” Punter said further.

“This group have been so tight. I don’t know if they’re scared of making change, or deep down they know that there might not be anything better that’s waiting underneath.

“It’s been at least 12 months where they have had the opportunity to make change, especially with the batting group.

“They have a lot of work to do, there’s a long way to go in this game, and right now I’m not sure what the odds suggest. I still think Australia should still be favourites even though yesterday went as badly as it did.

“They’ll get a chance to bat on the wicket when it’s at it absolute best. That’s when we’ll see if these guys are actually up to it, because if they’re not up to it in the second innings then maybe it is time to have a look at someone else.”

In response to the disappointing performance, veteran spinner Nathan Lyon admitted he and his teammates were well below their best.

“Challenging day, tough day of Test cricket, but credit to Bangladesh who played extremely well,” Lyon told SEN Cricket.

“But it gives us a good chance to reflect on our day as the Australian cricket team. The positive is we know where we can get better so we’ll freshen up, rest, recover and come back with some really good plans and hopefully put them into play.”

Given the lowly-rated Bangladesh removed the Aussies with such ease, there could be questions raised and curiosity surrounding the wicket.

But Lyon feels it played pretty fair, even if there was some swing around early.

“I think it’s a pretty good surface if I’m being honest,” Lyon added.

“It’s a typical Test wicket, nice and hard, nice carry. It did move a little bit, especially with the new ball early doors. The feedback coming back into the changerooms was that it was moving. bit.

“So it was challenging, but then you could see later in the day it seemed to settle down a little bit and go through quite nicely.

“I’m really intrigued to see how it comes up (this morning) with a lot of moisture in and around the morning.

“It’s up to us bowlers to make suer we challenge the Bangladesh batters as much as we can.”

Lyon praised Mahmud for taking a six-for in just his 15th Test match against the world’s top-ranked side.

“You’ve got to give credit to the guys especially when they bowl well with the young man taking six wickets,” he said further.

“Taking six wickets in a Test match isn’t easy, so hats off to him. He bowled extremely well, he bowled patient, he bowled great lines and bowled a really good bumper as well I found out.

“So credit to him. But the Australian team will go and reflect on where we can get better and how we go about that.”

Bangladesh will continue at the crease at Marrara Stadium from 10:30am AEST with Tanzid Hasan on 32 and Mominul Haque on 35.