Birmingham, Jun 19 (IANS): Amid the pressure building on David Warner to retain his place in the Australia team, former captain Ricky Ponting has backed the star opener to deliver with the bat in the second innings of the ongoing first Ashes 2023 Test against England, here.

Warner was dismissed by Stuart Broad for just nine runs in the first innings of the first Test, making it 15 times the left-hander has fallen to the English bowler. And pressure will build on the veteran opener should he fail again in the second innings.

But Ponting says he saw signs in both the first Edgbaston innings and Warner's knock against India in the World Test Championship Final that suggest he's close to getting back among the runs.

"I thought he looked really good in the first innings of the WTC Final; the 40-odd he made there, he played really well," the former Australia captain said in the latest episode of The ICC Review.

"And even though he made nine in the first innings here, the way he actually started his innings was the best I've seen him start in two years of Test cricket. So it's still there.

I think the fact that he wasn't able to score as freely as he would've wanted at the start of that innings played a part in him playing the shot that he did. But there's no doubt the second innings is an important one for him - not just for his career's sake, but it's going to be a big innings as far as this game and this series goes.

If he starts the same way that he started in the first innings, then I think he will make some runs," he added.

England were 28/2 at Stumps on Day 3, leading by 35, after they bowled Australia out for 386 in their first innings.