Ponting predicts his AUS XI for 1st Test vs IND

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has predicted his Australian team for the first Test against India. Ponting’s team includes an uncapped player and one spinner along with three pacers.

Finch to open, Khawaja in the middle order in Ponting’s team

The former Aussie cricketer feels that if the coach asked Aaron Finch where he’d rather bat, he is sure Finch would say he’d want to open.

Ponting noted that Finch had a lot of success around the world opening the batting in T20s and one day internationals and he believes if Finch can go in with a similar mindset and not worry too much about opening the batting in a Test match in Australia against the red ball,  Ponting is sure he’ll have some success.

This is the Australian side Ricky Ponting would pick for the First Test #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/0P40Lhc6BS

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) November 26, 2018

At the same time Pointing revealed that he has been a huge fan of Khawaja’s for a long time. He explained that sometimes there’s guys you just have to stick with, you just have to pick them and give them a go. He admits that Khawaja had a bad run in the subcontinent but he points out that he himself had a similar performance for the first part of his career.

The former Aussie captain believes that in UAE, Khawaja played one of the all-time great rear-guard innings an Australian has ever played. So he hopes it’s the making of Khawaja, not just for this summer but for the next five or so years.

Ponting wants Harris to debut

The Aussie cricketer has picked Marcus Harris to open with Finch. He recalled that when he first came into the WA (Western Australia) side, speaking to Justin Langer about Harris and he thought he was potentially an Australian player in the making.

He noted that no batsman has really dominated domestic Sheffield Shield cricket over the last few years but he notes that if we look at the numbers and the way Harris has performed this year, he deserves his chance to be opening the batting.

Need to show faith in players: Ponting

Ponting believes that Australia has to pick their best batting line-up without worrying about whether they’re all left-handed or if they’re all right-handed. He also feels that selectors need to show some faith in who they believe are the right people.

Also read: India will win 4-0 in AUS, predicts Engineer

Ponting’s XI for the first Test: Marcus Harris, Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (c/wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.