NEW DELHI: The legendary Ricky Ponting, who on Thursday maintained his prediction of a 3-1 series victory for Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, believed that captain Rohit Sharma joining the Indian team in the second Test at Adelaide could be a “potential disruption” for the visitors.
On Friday, the highly anticipated five-match Test series begins in Perth. Rohit will miss the series opener since he is on a paternity leave. In his place, the Indian squad is being captained by pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.
Border-Gavaskar Trophy
“I just think there’s potential for more disruption through their campaign with Sharma coming back and whatever else. So I’ll stick with it (3-1 verdict in favour of Australia),” Ponting said on ICC Review.
“(Marnus) Labuschagne and (Steve) Smith need to make runs for Australia. And their bowling attack obviously is as good as anyone’s in the world. So I’ll stick with my 3-1 Australia prediction.”
On December 6, the second Test, a day-nighter, will begin.
Despite their recent home series loss to New Zealand, Ponting, Australia’s all-time top scorer in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, thinks the tourists are generally calm heading into the series.
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“India will be pretty certain of what team they’re going to play (in Perth). They’ve known for a while that Rohit probably wasn’t going to be here,” Ponting said.
“They’ve probably known for a while that Bumrah was going to be captain.
“So they’ve probably known what holes they’ve needed to fill. So they’ll be reasonably settled.”
India has won all four of the previous series between the two teams, including back-to-back away Test victories in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
Ponting recalled how his 2-1 forecast in favor of Australia backfired after he discussed it with Sunil Gavaskar following India’s lowest-ever Test total of 36 all out in Adelaide during the 2020-21 series between the two nations.
In Australia, one of the most difficult nations to tour, India pulled off an incredible comeback to win in Melbourne and Brisbane and secure an unprecedented second consecutive Test series victory.
“I think I might have said 2-1 at the start,” Ponting recalled.
“And then Sunny looked at me and said, ‘It will be 2-1, but it will be 2-1 (in favour of) India.’ And I thought there was no way in the world that they could bounce back after losing the way they did in Adelaide. But they did.”
The fact that India accomplished their victory without the assistance of several first-choice players-including former captain Virat Kohli, who returned to the nation following the crushing defeat in Adelaide for the birth to his daughter-made it even more remarkable.
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Ponting hoped that this time, his forecast would come true.
“Sunny got the better of me there. So I hope Ravi doesn’t get the better of me this time. So I’m going to stick with the 3-1 Australia,” he said.
Regarding preparation, Ponting thought it was important to examine the mental aspect of the game, particularly for a big series like the one against India.
“Preparation is always a hard one to get right. Because I’ve seen guys like Travis Head in the past where they’ve almost had no preparation at all, going into a game and then turn up and play one of the all-time great innings,” he explained.
“…with this game, your skills don’t ever leave you. They don’t go too far away. But as long as you’re thinking clearly and thinking the right things, then you can make your body do pretty much whatever you want it to do.”
