Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes that Suryakumar Yadav should be included in the Indian squad for the ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in October this year, adding that the 31-year-old was not the one to “step down” from a challenge whatever be the situation.
Ponting, the two-time Australia World Cup winning captian, has seen Yadav closely during the Indian Premier League (IPL), and feels the Indian selectors should include the middle-order batter in the playing XI for the ICC T20 World Cup Down Under.
“He’s a very, very exciting player and I’m sure someone that’s going to find himself in their team, not just their squad,” Ponting said on The ICC Review.
“I think you’d find him in their team for the T20 World Cup. And if he’s in that team, then I think all the fans in Australia are going to see a very, very good player. He’s quite a confident person. He backs himself and he’s never going to step down from a challenge or any situation that arises in a game. I feel he thinks he can win that situation and therefore go on and win the game for his team,” he added.
Meanhwile, Ponting also added that Yadav should bat at No.4 for India in T20Is and has compared the star cricketer with South Africa great AB de Villiers. He also reckoned that “self-belief in his own game and his own skill” sets Yadav apart from other rising stars in the game.
“Surya (Yadav) scores 360 degrees around the ground, a bit like an AB de Villiers did when he was in his actual prime. The lap shots, the late cuts, you know, the ramps over the keeper’s head. He can hit down the ground,” Ponting said.
“He hits really well over the leg side, flicks to deep backward square particularly well, and he’s a good player of fast bowling and is a good player of spin bowling,” he added.
When asked whether Yadav would make India’s best XI, Ponting said: “he played better than anybody else in the Indian team for the last couple of series. It’s got to be in the top four, I think. I said stick with him (Virat) in his traditional spot, which has been number three.”
“For Surya, it’s one, two or four. I think he can open, but I think he’s probably, you know, if you could probably just keep him away from the new ball, let him control the middle part of the game outside the Powerplay, through in the middle, and if he’s in at the end, you know what can happen,” he added,