Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has urged out-of-form India skipper Suryakumar Yadav to again himself as he prepares to guide India within the upcoming ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2026, which is scheduled to kick off on February 7.
Yadav has been out of shape and has managed simply 218 runs throughout 19 innings with a below-par strike charge of 123.16 in 2025. Nevertheless, Ponting backed Suryakumar to return to his finest and rediscover the fearless model of cricket he’s famend for.
“That is as massive a shock for me, simply his latest kind. He is been such a stable and constant contributor for India in T20 cricket for a very long time and simply hasn’t been capable of finding it of late. He is an fascinating one as a result of after I’ve seen him play his finest, he is taken six or eight or 10 balls to get going after which simply lets all of it go,” Ponting advised ICC.
“He performs all of his photographs and backs himself and a bit like Travis Head the place it virtually appears to be like like they do not ever concern getting out. That is what I might say to him. I might be saying, take into consideration scoring runs, do not take into consideration getting out.
Belief your self, again your self. You are confirmed to be nearly as good as anyone on the earth within the T20 format and go and show it to everyone as soon as once more,” he added.
Ricky Ponting Shocked With Shubman Gill’s Exclusion
One of many larger surprises when the India squad for the T20 World Cup was introduced was the omission of Take a look at and ODI captain Shubman Gill.
Gill has struggled to make an affect since returning to India’s T20I setup in September. The opener has managed simply 291 runs throughout 15 innings, with a highest rating of 47, and has been unable to cement his place on the high of the order.
With a number of gamers competing for the opening slot, Gill was finally disregarded of the World Cup squad a lot to the shock of Ponting.
“Yeah, I could not imagine that. I do know his latest kind hasn’t been nice in white-ball cricket. And the final time that I actually noticed a lot of him play was the Take a look at collection towards England within the UK the place he batted in addition to I’ve ever seen anyone bat,” Ponting stated within the newest episode of The ICC Overview.
The 51-year-old Ponting admitted he was stunned by the choice however pointed to India’s distinctive depth as a key issue. He famous that the wealth of choices permits the selectors to go away out a participant of Gill’s calibre.
“I imply one, I am stunned, however two, it simply reveals the depth of Indian cricket,” Ponting acknowledged.
“When you can assume that somebody nearly as good as Shubman Gill does not get picked in a World Cup squad, then it goes to indicate what number of good gamers they do have,” he added.
Ricky Ponting Backs Axar Patel’s Appointment
India have appointed Axar Patel as their new vice-captain, and Ponting believes the 31-year-old’s all-round capacity makes him a key determine as India purpose to turn out to be the primary workforce to win back-to-back T20 World Cups.
“I imply truly Patel’s been their go-to man actually hasn’t he?” stated Ponting.
“The previous few collection he is been their pinch hitter at totally different instances. They’ve batted him up the order at quantity three. After they’ve wanted that left hand proper hand mixture he is been the person to exit and try to do it for them and he is clearly ever constant together with his left-arm off spin as effectively,” he added.