New Delhi: Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has backed Jasprit Bumrah to lead Team India in the first Test against Australia in Perth on November 22. As per the reports, Rohit Sharma is set to miss the series opener due to personal reasons.
The five-match Test series against Australia is crucial for Rohit and Co. to qualify for the World Test Championship final as they need to win at least four matches after the series loss against New Zealand. Bumrah has led Team India in one Test match against England in Birmingham in 2022. Ricky Ponting highlighted that Bumrah’s experience in Australia might help him if he called upon to lead India in the first Test.
“He compared Bumrah with Pat Cummins and noted the different challenges pacers face as captains. “Yeah, that (captaincy) is probably the hardest thing for him. I think that was always the question on Pat Cummins when he became the Australian Test captain as well. How much is he going to bowl himself? Is he going to bowl himself too much? Is he not going to bowl himself enough? But someone as experienced as Jasprit will understand the times when he needs to be bowling, when he needs to have a spell” Ponting said on the ICC Review.
‘There’s a lot of experience around Bumrah to help him’: Ricky Ponting
The former Australian captain also talked about the experienced players in the Indian team and said that Bumrah can use their invaluable insights which can help him in the match. Likes of Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were part of the team that previously won Test series on Australian soil in 2018/19 and 2020/21 and Bumrah can take advice from these veteran players.
“In that Indian team, there’s a lot of experience around him. And it’s really important, I think, that you use the experience around you even when you are the captain, and just ask the appropriate questions at the right time because no matter how much cricket we’ve played, we’re not always going to be right” Ponting added.
