Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has stuck with his 3-1 prediction for the Border-Gavaskar trophy in favor of the hosts. Ponting reckons picking 20 wickets in Australia will be a challenge for Indian bowlers as they will be without the services of their gun pacer Mohammed Shami.
Jasprit Bumrah will lead the pace attack with Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep as the support in fast bowlers. The Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel has also picked Harshit Rana, and Prasidh Krishna as the other two pacers in the squad. India will also have the services of spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Washington Sundar.
Ricky Ponting said on ICC Review, “Probably more so now (than before). (Mohammed) Shami just leaves such a big hole in that bowling group. Back then (in August) there was still some conjecture whether Shami would be fit or not. I think taking 20 wickets in a Test match for India is going to be the biggest challenge. I think they’ll bat well enough out here with the current group of batters that they’ve got.”
“I think India will win a Test match somewhere through the five Test matches. But I still think now, Australia probably look a bit more settled, a bit more experienced and we know that they’re a very hard team to beat at home. So I’ll stick with the 3-1,” he added.
India has won the last two Test series in Australia but they suffered a 0-3 series loss against New Zealand despite playing at home.
Ponting, on the other hand, backed Steve Smith and Rishabh Pant to finish as the leading run-getters in the upcoming five-match Test series.
“Leading run scorer, I’m going to go – Steve Smith or Rishabh Pant. I think Smith, the fact that he’s moved back down from opener to No.4 probably makes it feel like he’s got more of a point to prove…that maybe he shouldn’t have gone up to open in the first place and that No.4 is his spot and where he should have probably been the whole time and where he probably finished his career now.”
“And with Rishabh back in the side and probably coming into bat in the middle order when the ball’s probably lost a bit of its shine and a bit of its hardness and the form that he’s in, I’ll go for him as one of the leading run scorers as well,” he added.
The opening Test match between India and Australia will be played at Perth from November 22 onwards.
