Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has backed the Australian players to play in the UAE leg of IPL 2021. The remaining season will be played in the country between September 19 to October 15. Straight after the IPL, UAE is also hosting the upcoming T20 World Cup as well between October November. Ponting thus has urged his players to play in IPL which will offer similar playing conditions in the upcoming ICC event as well.
Talking to Cricket Australia, Ponting said that the remaining season will be a good preparatory time for the Aussies who return to the same venue within a month for the T20 World Cup.
“No doubt it’s their best preparation to be in those exact conditions, playing in probably the strongest domestic T20 tournament in the world,” said Ponting, who will head to Dubai as head coach of IPL side Delhi Capitals.
Ponting further said that playing in the IPL will help them play high-quality cricket as they look to build towards the T20 World Cup.
“Those guys that haven’t played for three or four months now, they need to get back into the groove of playing high-quality cricket against the best players in the world,” Ponting was quoted by cricket.com.au.
Australian Players Need To Play High-Quality Wicket: Ricky Ponting
Meanwhile, a few Australian players have opted out on their own admission. Pat Cummins has confirmed his unavailability due to the birth of his first child during that time. Steve Smith might also not considering playing the tournament due to his low base price. As many as 20 players are expected to feature in the second half of the tournament. David Warner and Glenn Maxwell are among the top Aussie players playing in the IPL.
Riley Meredith, Dan Christian, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye and Josh Philippe were all part of the side that toured the Caribbean and Bangladesh, and all hold IPL deals.
Aaron Finch Doubtful For T20 World Cup
Meanwhile, an untimely injury to Australian T20I skipper Aaron Finch has put his T20 World Cup spot in doubts. He had a successful surgery recently and might have to be on rest for 10 weeks. Australia recently lost a T20I series against Bangladesh 1-4 without Finch in it.
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