Ricky Ponting against Steve Smith becoming Australia’s captain

Ponting Smith

Tim Paine took over the captaincy from Steve Smith after the highly dramatic Test match in 2018 at The Newlands, Cape Town. Since then the wicket-keeper has honoured captain’s cap quite satisfactorily. Cricket Australia (CA) has already slammed David Warner with a lifelong ban from all leadership roles. But, they left a door open for Steve Smith and asked him to wait for 24 months.

Warner and Smith came back to international cricket last year and performed brilliantly. Along with them came the important question, whether Smith should be the successor for Paine. Paine is 35 years old and being a wicket-keeper it is speculated that he might retire after the 2021-22 Ashes.

“If Cricket Australia had thought he would have never done it again, they would have put a black line through his name right from the start. But they’ve left that option open,” Ponting told news.com.au.

However, Ponting feels that Smith’s reappointment is highly dependent on how the crowd will feel about him. The former skipper said that the crowd’s reaction has changed. But if the public doesn’t like the return of Smith as captain, it can turn out to be a disaster for Australian cricket.

“The public sentiment certainly has changed. It’ll be the interesting thing to see,” Ponting said. “It’ll be if the Australian public is willing to allow him to come back and be captain again. If Cricket Australia made that announcement that he’s going to be captain and it didn’t sit well with the public, then it’ll be an absolute disaster.”

Ponting is looking forward to coach against Dhoni

Ricky Ponting will be travelling to UAE to join Delhi Capitals for the Indian Premier League. The former Australian skipper is the coach for the Delhi franchise which is aiming to win their first IPL title this season. The right-hander said that he is looking forward to coaching his team against MS Dhoni. Ponting said he will also look to restrict Dhoni’s batting credentials when Chennai Super Kings will face Delhi Capitals.

“When you travel around the world and you listen to cricket fans. They talk about Dhoni and his leadership and how calm he seems to be under pressure,” Ponting said. “I’m looking forward to coaching against him now and making sure he doesn’t win any game off his own bat when Chennai play the Delhi Capitals,” he concluded.

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