Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is a tad surprised that Suryakumar Yadav doesn’t feature in India’s 15-member squad for next month’s World Test Championship final but backed Ishan Kishan to provide the much-needed ‘X’ factor in the absence of injured Rishabh Pant.
Suryakumar, who made his Test debut against Australia at home earlier this year, is among the standby players.
Asked if Suryakumar should have been in the squad, Ponting expressed surprise and said “yes”.
“But there is another X factor that has just been added in Ishan Kishan. If you look at the way he plays, he is probably the most like Rishabh Pant with his potential to keep and bat in the middle order.
“If they do play those guys they should be given the right to play an aggressive brand of cricket.
“The best chance for India to achieve a result is by being a bit more adventurous in the way they play and Australia will try to do the same thing,” Ponting said at an event organised by the International Cricket Council.
He feels Australia have a slight upperhand going into the title clash.
“If this game was played in India, I would have said it would be really hard for Australia to win. If this game was played in Australia I would say Australia will be 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 conditions will be much similar to an Australian wicket compared to an Indian wicket, therefore giving a slight advantage to Australia.”
Ponting, who is the Delhi Capitals head coach, revealed he had a lengthy chat with Virat Kohli during the away tie against RCB last month.
“I had a good chat with him about his batting and where he was at in his career. And he said to me then that he actually feels like he’s almost back to his absolute best.”
