Ricky Ponting named Australia’s assistant coach for upcoming T20 series

Australia have been struggling in T20s for the past two years losing 10 of the last 17 matches that they have played. The Cricket Australia have added Ricky Ponting in their backroom staff as an assistant coach for the upcoming series against England and New Zealand next month as their regular support staff of Graeme Hick, David Saker, and Brad Haddin are in South Africa to assist in preparations for Australia's four-Test tour from March.

Ricky Ponting has a success rate of 55.17 as a head coach of Mumbai Indians which included an IPL title in 2015. He was appointed as an interim coach for the Australian side that was touring Sri Lanka in 2016 during which he ended up losing and was replaced by Darren Lehmann.

The former captain has extensive experience of the shortest form of the game, captaining his country in the first ever T20 international against New Zealand in 2005, and then leading the side in the first two editions of the ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 and 2009. Ponting will be joined by Troy Cooley and Matthew Mott in the backroom staff for the tournament.

"I loved working with the squad last year against Sri Lanka and I can't wait to be working alongside Darren, Troy, and Matthew this time around," Ponting said after being named as the assistant coach, reported AFP.

Lehmann had previously said he would not seek to renew his contract when his current deal expired at the end of 2019, due to which Cricket Australia would want their one of their most successful captains as Lehmann’s successor.

Ponting has also shown his desire for the coaching job as he said, "Watching the Big Bash League in my role as a commentator has shown me we have a wealth of talent available to us in this format and a tri-series like this will give us a great chance to establish a pattern of play that works best for the players."