Ponting picks Aussie squad for next Test assignment

Australia's Test puzzle is almost complete according to former captain Ricky Ponting, who says the final pieces are falling in to place following a dominant summer on home soil.

Tim Paine's charges crushed an inexperienced Pakistan team 2-0 to begin the 2019-20 season before comprehensively outplaying a New Zealand side that arrived ranked the world's No.2 Test team to record a 3-0 whitewash.

The hosts have been utterly dominant with both bat and ball. From Marnus Labuschagne scoring four centuries and 896 runs – the most in a five-Test summer in 91 years – to David Warner posting a bulldozing 335no in the day-night Test in Adelaide to Travis Head cementing his place in the middle order with a patient century at the MCG, the Australian batters completely overwhelmed the opposition bowlers.

And that's without a century from Steve Smith, the right-hander who passed 7,000 Test runs faster than any Australian during the campaign as the world's No.2 Test batter.

With huge scores on the board, Australia's all-round bowling attack made light work of the Pakistan and New Zealand batting line-ups.

Leading the way was express fast bowler Mitch Starc, the left-armer who's altered action saw him take 29 wickets at 17.44 runs apiece, and continued his prolific partnership with Nathan Lyon, who claimed 27 wickets at 21.96 to comfortably record his best home summer in his 96-Test career.

Pat Cummins collected 20 wickets for the third straight summer while Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson shared the five Tests as part of the best bowling attack in the world, according to the veteran off-spinner.

All that was missing was a century each to opener Joe Burns and No.5 Matthew Wade. The pair averaged 32 and 43.40 respectively and couldn't quite nail down their positions with a big score.

That's the only blemish on the summer for Ponting, who says the Test team under Paine's leadership is close to completion.

"At times I would have liked to see Burns be a little bit more consistent and make consistently bigger runs," Ponting told cricket.com.au.

"Opening the batting is never an easy thing and I said after Brisbane I think we just need to show some faith and lock him in for a couple of years.

"Matthew Wade's spot is probably another one that will be talked about. I was disappointed that he didn't capitalise on some really good batting conditions in the first innings of this Test (Wade was out for 22). I know deep down he'd be hurting as well, he doesn't need me or anybody else to say he missed an opportunity there.

"The bowling group, with Hazlewood to come back in, looks rock solid.

"A back-up spinner would be ideal in case something happened to Nathan Lyon. Who's the next cab off the rank? It might be (leg-spinner Mitch) Swepson, hopefully it is.

"But there aren't too many missing pieces and knowing how hard they've worked this group of players, they'll do whatever they can to keep the same group together for as long as possible.

"I think they've brought together something pretty special as far as a group of players is concerned.

"The puzzle is almost complete."

Australia's next Test assignment is in June in Bangladesh where they drew 1-1 in 2017.

While the conditions will be vastly different in Bangladesh from the ones in Australia, and Australia's batters have traditionally struggled on spinning pitches, Ponting says he would stick with the same batting order with an eye to developing the inexperienced members of the squad.

"I can't see why they would want to change that and it would be a good learning experience for some of the guys that haven't been there," said Ponting.

"If Joe Burns is a long-term project at the top then he needs to learn how to play in different conditions, same with Matthew Wade and Travis Head.

"They are going to be difficult conditions over there, they are going to be spinning wickets we know that.

"They challenged us last time in Bangladesh. The boys will know what to expect and it will be a good learning curve for all of them."

Australia's selectors will need more than the 12 players that played this Test summer for the Bangladesh Test tour and Ponting suggests a veteran could earn a recall.

Ponting says Usman Khawaja could be a handy back-up batter having scored an epic 141 over nearly nine hours to save a Test match against Pakistan in Dubai in 2018.

The left-hander has been out of the Test side since the third Ashes Test last year but has 44 Tests under his belt and is determined to return to the five-day side.

Ponting says the selectors will look to take auxiliary spinners to assist Lyon, and possibly a seam-bowling allrounder.

"Swepson is an obvious one as another spinner, probably Jon Holland as well, they might think about taking three spinners over there," he said.

"Khawaja has actually started to play spin really well, they might think about him. His last few series in the subcontinent have been particularly good, they might think about him as being a back-up batsman.

'And it could depend on someone like Will Pucovski health-wise. If he's healthy it might be a really good place for him to tour and get to learn about different conditions.

"They might think about an allrounder, Mitchell Marsh or someone like that in case they want to go in with the two quicks and a back-up seam bowler.

"They'll probably be the names on everybody's lips."

Domain Test Series 2019-20

First Test v Pakistan: Australia won by an innings and five runs

Second Test v Pakistan: Australia won by an innings and 48 runs

First Test v NZ: Australia won by 296 runs

Second Test v NZ: Australia won by 247 runs

Third Test v NZ: January 3-7, SCG (Seven, Fox & Kayo)