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Azim hitter Ricky Ponting is a tad surprised Suryakumar Yadav has not featured in India’s main squad for the World Trials final next month, but he has backed Ishan Kishan to provide a much-needed ‘X’ factor in the absence of the injured Rishabh Pant.
Pant, who is recovering from the injuries he sustained in a horrific car accident in December, has had India go for the knock-out should he suffer a major setback, especially in offshore conditions.
Suryakumar, who made his Test debut against Australia at home earlier this year, could do the same for the team but he is only among the stand-by players. KL Rahul’s injury made way for Kishan, who Ponting believes can help India play an aggressive brand of cricket in their quest for their first ICC title in 10 years.
When asked if Suryakumar should be in the team, Ponting expressed surprise and said “Yes”.
But there is another X factor just added in Ishan Kishan. If you look at the way he plays, he is probably the most like Rishabh Pant with his ability to sustain and hit in the middle order.
“If they play these guys, they should be given the right to play an aggressive kind of cricket.
“India’s best chance of a result is to be more adventurous in their way of playing and Australia will try to do the same,” Ponting said in response to a PTI query at an event organized by the International Cricket Council. Before the final of the World Tennis Championships in the Oval from June 7.
Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah are the other injured players not available for the final.
“With the injury problems India has, they can use some different approaches especially in strikes. Before Rahul got injured, I had him in 11, and now that he isn’t there, they have to choose Ishan or KS Bharat,” said the three-time ODI World Cup winner. .
A slight advantage for Australia given the conditions
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Ponting sees Australia as having the upper hand in the title match.
“If this match was played in India I would say it would be really difficult for Australia to win. If this match was played in Australia I would say Australia would be the favourites but in England it brings the teams together.
We don’t know what the conditions will be like. Having played at The Oval, I think the conditions will be much more similar for Australian wickets than for Indian wickets, thus giving a slight advantage to Australia.” The legendary cricketer said both teams may use the kookaburra ball in the big match but an ICC source said as per the rule , the Dukes ball will be in play.
Who is best prepared for the WTC with the most Indian players busy with the IPL? ==============================================
The majority of India’s WTC squad play in the IPL while only three Australians participate in the T20 competition.
For India, Cheteshwar Pujara is the only one to ply their trade in county cricket, while the Australians currently in England are Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. Skipper Pat Cummins and spearhead Mitchell Starc chose to stay home and had not played in months.
“There are two ways of looking at it. For someone like Virat, is he better off playing now and scoring on a consistent basis and having the confidence to go into the match than the Australians back home who haven’t played much cricket but would be better prepared mentally,” said Ponting.
“So there are two ways of looking at it. Will Shami be better in terms of skill than Cummins who hasn’t played any cricket for months? He’s tough. A lot of it comes down to the personnel.” The 48-year-old doesn’t feel there is an “advantage” either way.
“Indian IPL players will not only think about the IPL. There will be workload management to make sure they are ok for a Test match in a couple of weeks.
“The other thing is that not all of these guys are going to play in the IPL final. One of these guys is going out tomorrow and they already have two and a half weeks of rest and preparation time.
“I’m not sure there’s a right or a wrong. What the Aussies have done with them being there like Smith and Labuschagne is they’re giving themselves the best chance to get used to the conditions.
“But I’m sure if you asked Virat what he preferred to do, he’d say ‘I prefer to score runs now’. If you asked fast bowlers, they would probably prefer two weeks off. So it works both ways.”
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