June 7, 2025
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Ricky Ponting

India vs England: Ricky Ponting backs Shubman Gill as Test captain, suggests ideal batting spot | Cricket News

India vs England: Ricky Ponting backs Shubman Gill as Test captain, suggests ideal batting spot | Cricket News

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Ricky Ponting has weighed in on India’s upcoming Test tour of England and the appointment of Shubman Gill as captain, calling it a “smart and timely” decision as the team transitions into a new era following the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the longest format.Speaking to The ICC Review, Ponting praised the 25-year-old Gill for his calm leadership and strong batting credentials, both of which he believes will serve India well in a challenging five-Test series starting June 20.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“I actually think it’s the right move,” Ponting said. “There’s been talk about why it wasn’t Bumrah or Pant, but Bumrah’s injury history makes it tough. You can’t have your captain missing matches. Shubman’s young, he’s a regular, and most importantly, he’s scoring runs.” Poll What are your expectations for India’s performance in the upcoming Test series against England? Ponting, who observed Gill’s leadership at Gujarat Titans during IPL 2024, believes Gill has grown into a natural leader. However, he feels moving Gill away from the top of the order may help him focus on captaincy duties.“Not having to open or bat at No.3 might ease the burden,” Ponting said. “I see Sudharsan and Jaiswal opening. Maybe KL Rahul at No.3, then Gill at No.4 and Karun Nair at five. It gives Gill some breathing space as a young skipper.” Gautam Gambhir sends stern message after Bengaluru tragedy Ponting also acknowledged the massive void left by the exits of Rohit and Kohli but expressed confidence in India’s depth.“If any country can rebuild quickly, it’s India,” he said. “They’ve got an abundance of young talent. Players like Jaiswal and Sudharsan have already shown their quality.”He was especially optimistic about uncapped left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh.“I’d play him from the first Test,” Ponting said. “He’s skillful, he’s played County cricket, and the Dukes ball will suit him. That left-arm angle adds variety.” Shubman Gill story: From a remote village near the border to India’s Test captain India Test squad for England Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.

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WTC Final: Marco Jansen reveals Ricky Ponting's cheeky send-off - 'Good luck, but hope you lose' ahead of Australia clash | Cricket News

WTC Final: Marco Jansen reveals Ricky Ponting’s cheeky send-off – ‘Good luck, but hope you lose’ ahead of Australia clash | Cricket News

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Marco Jansen with Punjab Kings coach Ricky Ponting. (Pic credit: IPL) South African pacer Marco Jansen has shared the cheeky parting words from Ricky Ponting that continue to echo in his mind as he prepares to face Australia in the ICC World Test Championship Final at Lord’s.Fresh off a stellar Indian Premier League (IPL) season with Punjab Kings, where he claimed 16 wickets in 14 matches, Jansen revealed that Ponting, who coached the Kings to a runners-up finish in his debut season, offered both support and a light-hearted jab before Jansen left India for England.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“Before I left (India), he (Ponting) just said, ‘Good luck, I hope you do well, but I hope you lose’,” Jansen told ICC Digital with a grin, as South Africa’s warm-up match against Zimbabwe was washed out in Arundel.The 24-year-old left-armer was full of praise for Ponting’s coaching style, especially his ability to nurture confidence and focus on the positives. Poll Do you believe Marco Jansen will excel in the ICC World Test Championship Final? “I learnt a lot from him, especially from a mental point of view. He is always positive and he always sees the good stuff instead of the bad. I think that’s why he’s a legend of the game,” Jansen said. “He always reminds you what could happen, what you can do, instead of what might go wrong.”Now shifting focus to red-ball cricket, Jansen is keen to soak up more knowledge from recently retired England pacer Stuart Broad, who has joined the Proteas in a consulting role ahead of the WTC Final. Gautam Gambhir sends stern message after Bengaluru tragedy “Obviously, he’s played a lot against Australia at Lord’s,” Jansen said. “Maybe I’ll pick his brain… ask what they did to get certain batters out. But at the end of the day, you still have to figure it out yourself on the pitch.”

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Shubman Gill's 'Sehwag-like game' a chink in the armour as Ponting warns of fresh 'challenge': He needs to bat at...

Shubman Gill’s ‘Sehwag-like game’ a chink in the armour as Ponting warns of fresh ‘challenge’: He needs to bat at…

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Despite comparing India’s new Test captain Shubman Gill, to the legendary Virender Sehwag, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting outlined that a similar approach is likely to meet a fresh challenge in the upcoming tour of England, and hence has work to do on his Test match batting. The Aussie great also called for a change in his batting position, considering the added responsibility of captaincy. Shubman Gill will be leading India in the England Test series(AFP) Speaking to PTI, Ponting addressed Gill’s much-criticised defensive technique, which has cost the youngster multiple times in his short career thus far. And although he sees no technical flaw in his approach, he reckoned Gill has to work on the mental side of Test match batting. “It’s a bit both. There are some of the great Test players that haven’t had great defensive games, and (Virender) Sehwag is probably a great example of that. But if you’re in control of your stroke-play, you don’t have to worry too much about your defence. I mean, obviously it’s (defence) a big part of Test match cricket, but I think it’s more his mental application,” he explained. “(But) I think sometimes you might just get a little bit either ahead of himself or a little bit lazy in the middle of a test match innings. You can’t afford to do that. You’ve got to be 100 per cent committed to every ball that you face through six or seven hours of every day…I think that’s the challenge for Shubman.” Gill to replace Virat Kohli at No. 4? The biggest question since Kohli’s departure from Test cricket last month was who would replace the former India captain at No. 4 in the line-up. Ponting backed Gill for the role, at least for the initial phase of his leadership tenure, which will begin on June 20 in Leeds with the five-match Test series against the Ben Stokes-led side. “…the reason I did that was if they go with (Yashasvi) Jaiswal, and if Sai Sudarshan is the other opener, they need someone a bit more experienced at number three. So that could be either, KL at three, or that could be a Karun Nair at three and Shubman at four. “…once you grow into it, then you can move yourself back up to that number three spot,” said one of the finest batters of his generation.

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IPL 2025: Inexperience cost us a bit but young group will win a lot in future, says Punjab Kings’ coach Ponting

IPL 2025: Inexperience cost us a bit but young group will win a lot in future, says Punjab Kings’ coach Ponting

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Punjab Kings’ Head Coach Ricky Ponting receives an award during the presentation ceremony of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 final, at the Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the championship. | Photo Credit: PTI Head coach Ricky Ponting conceded that Punjab Kings lacked little bit of experience in the middle order while batting second in a high-intensity IPL final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru but backed the team’s young players to come good in future. PBKS’ impressive run in the IPL came to an end with a six-run defeat to RCB in the final, with the latter ending their 18-year long wait to win the IPL trophy in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (June 3, 2025). Chasing 191, PBKS kept losing wickets in their chase and despite Shashank Singh’s (30-ball 61 not out) late onslaught, which included three fours and six sixes, they fell short. “You can look at it [the team] tonight and say was it probably a little bit of inexperience that cost us. Maybe, a little bit of experience in that middle order today might have helped us out,” Ponting told the media after the match. “But what I know is that they’re going to win us a lot of games going forward.” While the wicket here at the Narendra Modi Stadium remained conducive for batting, it was a little bit slower in certain phases of the game. Ponting, however, refused to give any “excuse”. “No, I don’t think so,” he said when asked if the pitch changed in the second half. “There are no excuses from us, no excuses from me, in fact, Shashank at the end of the game said [he thought] that’s the best wicket he has batted on for the whole season,” he said. “We just lost a bit of momentum at a critical time, probably the last couple of overs of the powerplay, you could feel that momentum just started to go away a little bit, and then [again] probably [in] the four or five overs outside the powerplay, we just lost momentum [and] we lost critical wickets, “They [RCB] probably felt they were a little bit short with the bat in the first innings, and we were pretty happy to be able to chase 190. But as I said, I’ll make no excuses, we just weren’t good enough,” Ponting added. Ponting said he would look back at the campaign with satisfaction. “I said in the first press conference I had with Shreyas (Iyer) in Mullanpur before the season started… it was about becoming a daring, dynamic and different team,” he said. “On the back of what Prabh [Prabhsimran Singh] and Priyansh [Arya] and [Nehal] Wadhera and these sort of guys were able to do, there’s probably enough being said through the media over the last couple of months. “The way that we’ve been able to play our cricket, it’s been a highly entertaining team to watch. For a coach to be able to sit back and talk about a team that way, [it] gives me a lot of satisfaction,” he said. Ponting said he emphasised on his batters to play with freedom and not worry about getting out over the course of the season. “One thing I’ve told this group is (that it is) always (about) taking the game forward, always seeing the positive result in the way that we go about it (and) not thinking about the negative result that might happen if you get out. “One thing as a batsman in this game [is that] you can’t be worried about getting out. If you’re worried about getting out, you can’t play the game well.” The former Australia skipper, however, rued the fact that PBKS did not have their preferred choice in South Africa’s Marco Jansen available for the last two matches while Australia’s Josh Hazlewood was available for RCB. South Africa and Australia are set to face-off in the final of the World Test Championship at Lord’s from June 11 and the Proteas players were instructed to leave by May 26 for the contest to be played at Lord’s. “It’s funny how those things work out, isn’t it? That to have him [Hazlewood] available pretty much for the whole season, and we’ve got a couple of guys that we would have loved to have had around for a big final like this and we weren’t able to have that happen,” he said, adding that Hazlewood in particular troubled Punjab batters throughout this season. Ponting said Punjab Kings will bounce back bigger and stronger next season. “It was only a couple of days [ago] that we were here celebrating one of our great wins of the season to get into the final, and today we probably feel that we’ve let one slip. But with this group being as young as it is, we’ll be back bigger and stronger next season,” he said. Published – June 04, 2025 11:00 am IST

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RCB’s Man Friday: Krunal Pandya turns IPL final on its head | Cricket News

RCB’s Man Friday: Krunal Pandya turns IPL final on its head | Cricket News

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Krunal Pandya (IPL Photo) TimesofIndia.com in Ahmedabad: With the bat, ball, or in the field, Krunal Pandya has always produced magic for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in this year’s IPL. Krunal was the engine on which the RCB team functioned throughout the season, and it was the 34-year-old who played a pivotal role in ending Bengaluru’s long 18-year wait.Krunal picked up the crucial wickets of Prabhsimran Singh and Josh Inglis and gave away only 17 runs from his four-over quota. He was introduced after the powerplay and squeezed Punjab Kings’ run flow, bowling 12 dot balls — which proved to be gold dust for RCB in their quest for a first title.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The lone boundary Krunal conceded was the six Josh Inglis hit on the first ball of his third over, but he came back brilliantly in the next five balls, conceding just a single. He bowled flat, quick, and varied his pace to perfection, leaving the Punjab Kings’ batters at sea while facing him. ‘A particularly special feeling’: Andy Flower hails Virat Kohli, RCB after historic title win Who’s that IPL player?“When we batted in the first innings, I was sitting outside and chatting with batters. I realised the slower you bowl, the better,” he said at the post-match presentation.“But in this format, as a bowler, you need guts to do that because the margin of error is small. I just backed myself and thought that if I’m able to vary my pace and keep it more on the slower side, I’ll create chances rather than just coming and firing it in.“What has been my biggest strength is learning what the situation requires. I’ve always backed my gut and instinct. Today also, I realised if I have to take a couple of wickets, I have to be brave. If you bowled quick on that surface, it would’ve been a good batting wicket. But if you varied your pace, there was some help.”Virat Kohli showered praise on Krunal and called his spell game-changing in the final.“Krunal Pandya’s spell will be remembered for a long time. He made the difference in this final.” Poll Which quality do you think makes Krunal Pandya a ‘big-match player’? Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting pointed out that it was Krunal’s spell where his team lost momentum.“Krunal Pandya did an exceptional job with the overs that he bowled,” Ponting told reporters after the match.“The game was starting to slip away around the 11th, 12th, and 13th overs, and the hole got too big,” he said while referring to Krunal’s fantastic spell.Not only Ponting, Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer also credited Krunal for his exceptional bowling performance.“They bowled brilliantly, especially Krunal. He carries a lot of experience; he has done it over a period of time. I believe that was the turning point,” said Shreyas. ‘Daring, Dynamic, Different’: Ponting hails PBKS young guns despite final loss This was Krunal’s fourth IPL title, and he has played a significant role in winning two IPL finals.Interestingly, it was not the first time Krunal Pandya turned an IPL final on its head. In 2017, playing for Mumbai Indians against Rising Pune Supergiant, Krunal played an exceptional 38-ball 47 in a low-scoring final in Hyderabad. He now becomes the first player to win the Player of the Match award in two IPL finals.Krunal finished the season with 17 wickets and 109 runs. But those numbers don’t tell the full story of his contribution to RCB.Let’s jog down memory lane. On April 27 in New Delhi, the southpaw was struggling. He was going nowhere in his innings, Mitchell Starc was troubling him with searing pace, and Dushmantha Chameera then cracked him on the helmet with a short ball. Krunal had 25 off 28 and looked utterly stuck, with RCB needing 84 off 46.He hit 48 off his last 19 balls and steered his team to a comfortable six-wicket win with nine balls to spare.RCB head coach Andy Flower called him a big-match player this season.“Krunal is a big-match player and a great competitor,” he said at the press conference.Indeed, Krunal has been a warrior for RCB throughout this season and, in the truest sense, has been Bengaluru’s “Man Friday.”

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Former World Cup-Winning Captain Ricky Ponting Predicts Travis Head To Be 'Highest Run-Scorer' Of T20 WC

Former World Cup-Winning Captain Ricky Ponting Predicts Travis Head To Be ‘Highest Run-Scorer’ Of T20 WC

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Former Australia World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting predicted that Baggy Greens star opener Travis Head will be the highest run-scorer of the upcoming T20 World Cup. Ahead of the marquee event starting on June 1 in the USA and the West Indies, Travis Head has been enjoying a purple patch with the bat. Ponting has backed Head to emerge as the top run-getter in the highly anticipated tournament. He believes that the southpaw’s performance over the past couple of years in all formats of cricket has been of the highest quality. “My prediction for the leading run-scorer will be Travis Head. I just think everything he’s done, whether it be red-ball or white-ball in the last couple of years, has been of the highest quality. I think he’s playing fearless cricket at the moment,” Ponting said in the ICC Review Podcast. In last year’s ODI World Cup, Australia showed faith in him by including Head in the squad despite carrying an injury. Head was added to the playing XI when he regained fitness and repaid the management’s faith by scoring a ton in his comeback match. He also won the Player of the Match award in the semi-final and the final of the tournament. In the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), Head featured for Sunrisers Hyderabad and emerged as the highest run-scorer for the franchise. Overall, he was the fourth-highest run-scorer in the tournament with a whopping tally of 567 runs in 15 matches scoring at an average of 40.50 and a mouth-watering tally of 191.55. En route to the final, SRH were buttressed by Head’s explosive start in the opening slot. He struggled to put up runs at the backend of the tournament but overall showed his destructive potential in the opening front of the shortest format of the game. In the final three games, he registered two ducks and a 34-run knock. Despite his sub-par performance towards the end of the cash-rich league, Ponting expects fireworks from Head’s bat in the World Cup. “His IPL had its ups and downs, but when it’s been good, it’s been very good. And it has won games of cricket for his team,” Ponting noted. “And it’ll be exactly the same for Australia. So, look, he might not be the most consistent on the way through this tournament, but he’ll be right up there, I’m sure, with the leading run scorers. And as I’ve said, if he spends any amount of time at the wicket for Australia, he’ll win more games than ever,” Ponting added. Australia are placed in Group B alongside England, Namibia, Oman and Scotland. They will begin their campaign against Oman on June 6 at the Kensington Oval, Barbados. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Topics mentioned in this article

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No Virat-Rohit as Ricky Ponting predicts leading run-scorer in T20 World Cup 2024 – India TV

No Virat-Rohit as Ricky Ponting predicts leading run-scorer in T20 World Cup 2024 – India TV

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Image Source : GETTY Travis Head and Ricky Ponting at Lord’s, London in June 2023 The former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting revealed his predictions for the the leading run-scorer and wicket-taker in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 on Thursday, May 30. Ponting surprised everyone by picking Indian bowler and Australian batter as his predcitions.  Indian batters and Australian bowlers boast impressive records in the tournament history and are tipped to dominate leaderboard chart in the ninth edition in the USA and West Indies starting from June 1.  Ponting picked the in-form Australian batter Travis Head as his leading run-scorer predicition in the World Cup ahead of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli holds vaious records in the T20 World Cup, including the record of most runs in an edition, and recently won the Orange Cap in the IPL 2024 for scoring 741 runs. Travis Head also made a big impact in the IPL 2024 by scoring 567 runs at a strike rate of 191.55. Ponting beleives that the left-handed opening batter is displaying fearless cricketer for the last couple of years and will be leading run-scorer in the upcoming tournament. “My prediction for the leading run-scorer will be Travis Head,” Ponting told the ICC. “I just think everything he’s done, whether it be red-ball or white-ball in the last couple of years, has been of the highest quality. I think he’s playing fearless cricket at the moment.” Notably, Travis Head is yet to make his T20 World Cup debut despite scoring 656 runs in 25 T20I innings at a strike rate of 147.08. Head is tipped to open with the veteran David Warner in the upcoming World Cup. Meanwhile, Ponting snubbed Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc’s names to pick India’s Jasprit Bumrah as the leading wicket-taker. Despite Mumbai Indians’ disastrous campaign, the Indian pace ace made a stunning comeback in the IPL 2024 by taking 20 wickets at an economy rate of 6.48. “My leading wicket-taker for the tournament will be Jasprit Bumrah. I just think an outstanding performer, contributor for a number of years now. He’s just come off an outstanding IPL. What he can do with the new ball, he swings the new ball, he has the seam up. But at the end, his economy rate at the end of the IPL was less than seven runs an over,” Ponting added.

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Ricky Ponting predicts these two players as leading wicket-taker and run-getter in T20 World Cup | Cricket News

Ricky Ponting predicts these two players as leading wicket-taker and run-getter in T20 World Cup | Cricket News

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NEW DELHI: Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has predicted India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and Aussie batting sensation Travis Head to emerge as the leading wicket-taker and run-getter, respectively, in the upcoming T20 World Cup.Ponting, renowned for his cricketing acumen, believes Bumrah’s exceptional pace and skill in delivering crucial breakthroughs will make him the tournament’s top wicket-taker.On the batting front, he expects Head’s aggressive and consistent performances to earn him the most runs.Both players have shown remarkable prowess in T20 cricket, and Ponting’s prediction underscores their potential to shine on the world stage, setting high expectations for their contributions in the tournament.Bumrah is coming off a sensational IPL season, where he took 20 wickets in 13 games and maintained an impressive economy rate of 6.48, despite the high-scoring nature of the tournament.“My leading wicket-taker for the tournament will be Jasprit Bumrah,” Ponting told The ICC Review.“I just think an outstanding performer, contributor for a number of years now. He’s just come off an outstanding IPL.“What he can do with the new ball, he swings the new ball, he has the seam up. But at the end, his economy rate at the end of the IPL was less than seven runs an over.“He takes wickets. He does bowl a lot of the hard overs too. When you bowl the hard overs in T20 cricket, it gives you a chance to pick up a lot of wickets along the way. So, I’m going with him,” added Ponting.Ponting selected fellow Australian Head as his pick for the top run-scorer in the upcoming tournament.“My prediction for the leading run-scorer will be Travis Head,” Ponting said.“I just think everything he’s done, whether it be red-ball or white-ball in the last couple of years, has been of the highest quality. I think he’s playing fearless cricket at the moment.”Head suffered an injury at the beginning of the ICC World Cup last year. However, Australia‘s belief in his abilities was so strong that they kept him with the squad until he recovered.In his return match against New Zealand during the tournament, Head repaid the team’s trust with a blistering century. He concluded the World Cup with an impressive record, scoring two hundreds and a fifty, maintaining an average above 50, and striking at a remarkable rate of 127.52.Head’s exceptional form persisted in the current IPL 2024 season, where he played a crucial role as an opener in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s journey to the final. Throughout the tournament, he amassed 567 runs in 15 matches, maintaining an extraordinary strike rate of 191.55.Despite Head’s underwhelming conclusion to the IPL season, Ponting anticipates that he will continue to display his explosive batting prowess during the upcoming matches in the Caribbean and the United States.“His IPL had its ups and downs, but when it’s been good, it’s been very good. And it has won games of cricket for his team,” Ponting noted.“And it’ll be exactly the same for Australia. So, look, he might not be the most consistent on the way through this tournament, but he’ll be right up there, I’m sure, with the leading run scorers. And as I’ve said, if he spends any amount of time at the wicket for Australia, he’ll win more games than ever,” Ponting concluded.The T20 World Cup 2024 will begin on June 1 in the West Indies and USA.

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