Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
'He could be like what Symonds did for Australia': Ponting's glaring 'World Cup' message for Dravid, Rohit Sharma
Australia legend Ricky Ponting has backed an out-of-form India star for the big role, comparing him with late great Andrew Symonds.
The IPL fever is on, but in a World Cup year, the talk around the big tournament slated to be held in October this year in India, is inevitable. India will be one of the contenders for the trophy, but the team is yet to produce a noteworthy win, with veterans and experts slamming their weak batting line-up. One of the biggest point of discussion for India will be their No.4 amid the injury concern of Shreyas Iyer, who will be out of action for more than three months now. But Australia legend Ricky Ponting has backed an out-of-form India star for the big role, comparing him with late great Andrew Symonds.
India's top-three is set with captain Rohit Sharma set to open alongside young and talented Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli at No.3. India also have no concern over the possible place of all-rounder Hardik Pandya and wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul in the line-up. But what has been a big topic of concern has been the No.4 slot.
In the recently-concluded home series against Australia, where India lost 1-2, Suryakumar Yadav was tried at that spot in absence of injured Iyer. But the star batter returned with a forgettable streak of three straight golden duck dismissals which further hurt his ODI career numbers, reducing his average to 12.28 since his last fifty in February 2022.
Speaking on The ICC Review, Ponting however backed Suryakumar for a place in India's World Cup squad as he pointed towards his numbers in T20I cricket and performance in the last 12 months before hailing that he is a "sort of player that can win you a World Cup".
"Everyone in their career goes through something like that. I mean, I'm not sure I have seen it before where someone's got three first-ball ducks in a row in an entire series. But look, we've all been there. You have your ups and downs as international players," the former Australia skipper said.
"His previous 12 or 18 months have been absolutely outstanding. And everyone around the world knows what Surya can do in white-ball cricket," Ponting noted. "I feel they should stick with him because he's the sort of player that can win you a World Cup. He might be a little bit inconsistent but he's the sort of guy that in big moments can win you games. A bit like the late great Andrew Symonds did for Australia.
"So that's definitely the way that I'd look at it for India. I wouldn't be playing safe. I'd be going with match-winning players and I think he's a match-winner."
