IPL 2020: ‘We have a very balanced squad,’ says Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting

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As the ball gets rolling for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, the teams are gearing up for an enthralling display of the powerpacked batting, economical bowling and sturdy fielding and Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting belives his team cover all the bases, come the tournament.

At DC’s virtual press meet from Dubai, the Australian star hailed the depth of his batting and acknowledged improvements in some of the key players, which will help the team better their last year’s performance.

The Shreyas Iyer-led DC was on winning spree before being halted at the playoffs in 2019. This year is the best chance for the team to clinch their first IPL title, if there balance in batting and bowling is anything to go by.

“This year we have a very balanced squad. We got flexibility in the team and there’s competition for all the spots. We also have flexibility in the batting order that allows us to change the batting order as requires,” Ponting said at the presser today.

“Someone like Shikhar Dhawan took his game to another level and addition of Ajinkya Rahane added further depth to the side. Prithvi Saw is someone who is better than he was last year and our captain Shreyas Iyer has enjoyed his best 12 months with the Indian team,” he added.

Fast bowlers will play a big role: Ponting

Playing conditions in the UAE has been a talking point about among cricket pundits, which will be scorchy accompained by slow and sticky wickets, giving slow bowlers and spinners chance to showcase their skills. The matches has been narrowed down to just three venues — Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, meaning most of the pitches will get slower as the tournament progress.

Ponting, however, thinks that pitches will provide assistance to fast bowlers in the initial phase of the tournament and spinner may not play a big role as is been speculated.

“I think the conditions are going to change throughout the tournament as so many matches are going to be played over three tournament. I think Dubai alone is going to host 24 games and it has four pitches.

“There was fair bit of grass on the pitch and I think it will further reduced by the time we play the match tomorrow (Sunday). That’s why in the initial part of the series, seamers will have a bigger role to play and spinner won’t be that effective,” he explained.

After all the drama that surrounded DC in the lead up to the tournament between R. Ashwin and Ponting on Mankading issue, Ponting said,”“We had more than one conversations on the matter. I actually called Ashwin the night after my comments hit the news. We have talked about lot of things and decided how we want to play cricket.

In fact last year, after the incident happened (Ashwin was captain of Kings XI at that time), I had a talk with the entire team on how we look at the incident and we all unanimously decided that we don’t want to play that way. I understand why Ashwin did it and he also understands how we play cricket,” he said.

DC will play their opener against Kings XI Punjab in Dubai.

Also Read: IPL 2020: Delhi Capitals have a good chance of winning this time, says Sunil Gavaskar