'It was a definite technical change' - Ricky Ponting on how Mark Wood countered Marnus Labuschagne

While the ongoing Ashes has become interesting, the on-field battle between Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne and England bowler Mark Wood made headlines too. Wood dismissed Marnus for the third consecutive innings, even after he made a technical change to counter the speedster.

However, Wood has had Labuschagne in the Boxing Day Test too when he had him caught at slips for just one run. As far as the recent Test is concerned, in the first innings on the fourth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Wood dismissed Labuschagne while he was nicking a delivery off, and the wicketkeeper, Jos Buttler did no mistake and sent him for 28. In the second innings, Wood again bowled in a similar way. And, he got a nick which Ollie Pope – who was keeping in place of the injured Buttler, grabbed.

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And, Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has opened up on how Marnus Labuschagne changed his technique but eventually got out in Sydney.

‘He would have felt that Wood had something on him’ – Ricky Ponting on Marnus Labuschagne

While speaking on a video released by cricket.com.au, Ponting said: “It was a definite technical change. I saw that at the start of the second innings today. On the back of the way he was dismissed in Melbourne and the first innings here in Sydney, he would have felt that Wood had something on him. He had to change what he was doing to try and combat that. He was moving back and across further and was also not bringing his front foot into the line as early as he was.”

The veteran also explained how Mark Wood changed the angle and went wider which made it more difficult for Marnus Labuschagne after his technical change.

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He explained: “With guys who move like that, they move across outside the off-stump to cover their stumps. But when the bowler changes the angle up and goes wider on the crease, it feels like the ball is always coming back in to challenge your off-stump and that’s where Marnus got into trouble.”

“And even the one today, you can probably say he nicked it probably because his footwork pattern had changed. If he hadn’t moved that far across, that would have been a ball he could have cut easily. But because he moved so far, that ball actually got too close to him to try and cut and that is why he nicked it,” Ponting concluded.