'Very, very poor' - Ricky Ponting sums up Australia's performance on day 1 of Darwin Test against Bangladesh

Ricky Ponting didn't mince his words when he was asked to sum up Australia's performance on day 1 of the opening Test against Bangladesh at the Marrara Cricket Ground in Darwin on Thursday (August 13). The former Australia captain rated the hosts' efforts as "very, very poor" after they failed to even breach the 200-run mark after electing to bat on a "challenging wicket".

Ponting alluded to technical flaws in Australia's top-order while urging the batting line-up to keep the team in the contest by at least scoring "30 or 40".

"Pretty simple, Em. It was a very, very poor day of test cricket from Australia," Ponting replied when Channel 7 host Emma Freedman asked him to sum up Australia's performance on day 1 in Darwin. "Look, there was a challenging wicket, yes. Australia won the toss, elected to bat, but they've got to be better than 198. And I think that's been- some frustration has been vented and spoken about already. But once again, I think we saw the frailties in technique with this top order.

"You know, we're not asking guys to go out and get 100 or 200 out there, but we need our top order to find a way just to get 30 or 40. Keep your team in the contest, and once again, they weren't good enough to do that yesterday."

At the time of writing, Bangladesh had scored 147/2 in 42 overs with Najmul Hossain Shanto (6*) and Tanzid Hasan (62*) unbeaten in the middle. Mominul Haque was the only wicket to fall after the start of the day's play. He was nicked off Josh Hazlewood, one shy of a half-century.

Australia's playing XI:

Jake Weatherald, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Beau Webster, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Bangladesh's playing XI:

Shadman Islam, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Mominul Haque, Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Litton Das (wk), Mushfiqur Rahim, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Ebadot Hossain