Ricky Ponting has urged Australia’s selectors to stick with David Warner for the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford, insisting a big score is imminent for the opener.

Australia are due to regroup in Manchester with a full-squad training session on Sunday.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: England keep women’s Ashes series alive.

Watch, Stream & Catch Up with Australia's Home of Cricket on 7plus >>

A win in the next Test will be enough to secure their first Ashes series win in England since 2001

The biggest conundrum for the tourists remains whether to bring a fit-again Cameron Green back into the team - potentially at the expense of Warner.

Green has been an automatic pick for Australia whenever fit since his debut against India in 2020-21 but Mitch Marsh’s century filling in for him in the third Test at Headingley has put that first-choice status in doubt.

Warner made a total of five runs in the third Ashes Test. Credit: AAP

One option would be to move Green to the top of the order and drop Warner, who has made one half-century on this tour, with 66 in the second Test at Lord’s.

Most concerning for Australia is that the opener was dismissed twice by his nemesis Stuart Broad at Headingley for four and one, taking his tally of outs off the seamer to 17.

If Warner was dropped, it could spell the end of his international career given the 36-year-old’s stated intention to retire this summer against Pakistan at the SCG.

But Ponting said he would stick with the under-fire opener, leaving Green as the odd man out when the fourth Test gets under way on Wednesday.

“I’m probably more inclined to give David another opportunity and hope he can get through Stuart Broad and go on and make a big score,” Ponting said in an International Cricket Council podcast.

“When someone’s got you out 17 times, it does become as much a mental - or probably more of a mental - battle than it does a technical battle.

“But just thinking about the series, I’d be inclined to stick with David Warner.”

Ricky Ponting is urging selectors to stick with David Warner. Credit: Mike Egerton / PA Images via Getty Images

Ponting noted Australia’s lack of warm-up games had made Warner harder to drop, given back-ups Marcus Harris and Matt Renshaw have not had a chance to press their claims.

But the former Test captain - who coached Warner in the Indian Premier League at Delhi Capitals this year - would like to see changes in the opener’s demeanour.

He felt Warner looked nervous when facing Broad, as shown by his wry smile when he twice edged the England quick to the slips at Headingley.

“I’d like to see him go the other way. I’d like to see him show that real bulldog fighting spirit that he’s got,” Ponting said.

“Like he showed in the first innings of the World Test Championship, like he showed in the first innings at Lord’s where he made runs.

“If he gets back to that, with the way that I’ve seen him start in a couple of his innings, I honestly do feel a big score is just around the corner for him.”

Click here to read article