Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels India should back Suryakumar Yadav ahead of the ODI World Cup to be held at home in October-November, saying the right-handed batter is a kind of a player who can win the side a major event like the World Cup.
In India's last ODI assignment in March before IPL 2023 began, Suryakumar was dismissed for a hat-trick of golden ducks as Australia won the three-game series 2-1. He has scored 172 ODI runs at an average of just 12.28 since his last ODI half-century in February 2022.
"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."
"His previous 12 or 18 months have been absolutely outstanding. And everyone around the world knows what Surya can do in white-ball cricket. 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," said Ponting in the latest episode of The ICC Review show.
Survya at Number 5?
Ponting said he believes that Suryakumar could be best utilised at the number five spot for India in ODIs. "I think he was only batting at five, wasn't he? I don't think they want him much lower than that, especially when they've got Hardik (Pandya), (Ravindra) Jadeja and Axar (Patel), they've got plenty of batting."
"I'm a big believer in giving your best batter as much time as you can in all formats of the game. Because if you keep them down the order, quite often you don't get to use your best players and that's the last thing you want. So I think the No.5 slot's perfect for him and he's just got to grow into that role there."
Ishan Over KL
Ponting opined India will have to stick with left-handed wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan though K.L Rahul is the frontrunner to keep wickets for the Rohit Sharma-led side, especially with Rishabh Pant out of action for several months due to injuries suffered in a serious car accident last year.
"Look, I do think they'll stick with him. I think in their World Cup squad, K.L. will definitely be there. I think Ishan Kishan should definitely be there as well to give another left-handed batting option because if you look back to game three, they promoted Axar and Jadeja ahead of Surya because of Ashton Agar and the balls spinning away from the right-handers."
"With Rishabh not being there now, they might think of maybe wanting to play a specialist left-handed batter in the middle order which I think would have to be Ishan Kishan in some role, whether that's at No.4 or No.5."
"Just to negate teams that have got left-arm off-spin because when you look at the spinners around the world now, there are very few right-arm off-spinners in ODIs and T20Is. You need to have left-handers through your middle order."
"Most sides will have left-arm off-spin and right-arm leg spin and if you've only got right-handers through the middle order, it's a lot harder for those guys to play it. So I think they'll go into that World Cup with the two keepers in their squad and they'll make the decision on what they need as far as their batting is concerned," he concluded.
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