Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting will prefer Arshdeep Singh over Harshit Rana for this Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh on Thursday, the Rohit Sharma-led Indian side hoping to fill this huge void left by injured pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. Rana has done reasonably well every time he has played leading towards the ICC event, but Ponting feels the left-arm pacer Arshdeep is better suited to bowl in all phases of the 50-over game. “I would go with the left-armer and I’d go with Arshdeep (to replace Bumrah),” Ponting said on The ICC Review.
“We know just how good he’s been in T20 cricket and if you think of the skill sets, he’s probably providing a very similar skill set to what Bumrah offers with the new ball and death overs, and that’s what India will miss.”
“That’s not to take away anything from Harshit Rana, because he has a lot of talent and we know what he can do with a new ball. But I don’t think his death skills are quite as good as Arshdeep Singh’s.” Ponting feels that having a left-arm fast bowler in the playing eleven is always “critical.”
“And just that left-arm variation, someone who can bowl left-arm and swing the new ball-a very important quality and crucial, especially in big tournaments when you’re facing a lot of right-handers at the top. I would personally learn that way if I was in India.” According to Ponting, it’s good news for India that Rohit and Kohli have found their form in the preceding ODI series against England.
“It’s wonderful to have Shreyas Iyer back in the team and performing well in the middle order. He did well,” he said.
“Most importantly for India, (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli) are back scoring runs, and that’s what they are going to need as they go into big tournaments.”
“Rohit, Virat, your seasoned players, you need them to step up in the big tournaments in the big moments. So, with everything for India at this point in time, barring Bumrah’s loss, everything else looks okay.”
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