Ricky Ponting, an Australian legend and two-time world cup winning captain, feels that Mohammad Shami’s strength lies in the red ball game and that there are better pacers in India’s T-20 setup, considering his absence from the Asia Cup squad.
For the upcoming six-team main event Asia cup 2022, India has picked Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, and Arshdeep Singh as the three fast bowlers. Due to injuries to Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel, many felt that Shami might be included to share the duties of the new ball during the Asia Cup. Shami has picked up 18 wickets in 17 T-20Is for India.
In a recent episode of The ICC interview, Ponting said “I think there are better fast bowlers in Indian T20 cricket than Shami and they’ve only named three for the Asia Cup. So if there’s potentially four named in the squad he might be the fourth man in.”
“He’s (Shami) been a very, very good bowler for India for a long time now. If you look at his strengths, his Test cricket is probably where he thrives the most,” he added.
Ponting predicted the number of Indian bowlers boarding to Australia.
“I would think they’ll probably only have the four quicks coming to Australia. They’ll still want to bring a lot of spins here even though the wickets are probably not that conducive,” Punter added.
In the upcoming Asia Cup 2022, to be held in UAE from this 27th August to 11th September, Ponting picked India as the favorites to win the tournament.
He later added, “It’s always hard to go past India in any tournament, not just an Asia Cup, but I think every time we talk about the T20 World Cup which is coming up, I think that India will be right in the thick of it there.”
He also predicted the result of the India and Pakistan clash in the Asia Cup 2022.
Read the full article: Who will win India vs Pakistan Asia Cup 2022 clash? Ricky Ponting answers