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Legendary Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting has made a bold remark on the upcoming five-match Test series between India and Australia. The upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy will decide the Indian National Cricket Team’s ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final fate.
India is currently in a difficult position in the WTC 2025-27 points table and may need a huge Border-Gavaskar Trophy series win, possibly 5-0 or 4-1, to stay in a strong position for the final.
Before the high-profile Test series against Australia, India will play a two-match Test series in New Zealand later this year, and they aim to win at least one game on the tour. Amid this, Rajat Patidar takes fantabulous catch to dismiss Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in Duleep Trophy 2026.
Ricky Ponting gives Australia big hope ahead of tough India tour
Ricky Ponting admitted that the Australia National Cricket Team will face another tough challenge in India in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but he also feels the visitors can take confidence from New Zealand and South Africa winning Test series in India in recent years.
Ricky Ponting said on Sports Today: “Oh look, it's always a hard tour for Australia. It's always been a hard place for us to win. That's saying that a lot of other countries in the last few years have been able to go to India and beat India at home. New Zealand being a great example and South Africa obviously doing the same, Australia can take some comfort from that.”
Australia last won a Test series in India way back in 2004-05. They sealed the four-match Test series 2-1 under Adam Gilchrist’s captaincy, as then-regular captain Ponting was injured. The Kangaroos won the Tests in Nagpur and Bengaluru, while India secured a victory in Mumbai. Amid this, Mohammed Shami takes jaw-dropping catch off his own bowling to dismiss Harsh Dubey in Duleep Trophy.
Ricky Ponting warns India over spin-friendly pitches ahead of Australia series
Meanwhile, the former Australian captain feels India may need to rethink their strategy for the pitch. He believes some recent pitches have offered too much turn, making it difficult even for Indian batters to score runs. He feels India must carefully prepare pitches for the home Tests.
The legendary batter further explained, “India probably, if they want to win more games at home, needs to be a bit more thoughtful with the way that they prepare their wickets there. I think they've gone way too far with preparing spinning wickets that their batters haven't been able to cope with and opposition teams have been able to play better in India than they have.”
Ricky Ponting predicts major Australia changes for India Tests
Ponting also predicted that Australia will make changes, especially in the batting line-up, for the upcoming five-match Test series in India. The former World Cup-winning captain does not expect Australia to take all their fast bowlers to India either for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
He signed off by saying, “I think the Australian team will probably be slightly different come that time of year as well when Australia is in India. I think some changes will be made to our batting line-up in particular. I can't see us taking all our fast bowlers to India either if the wickets look like they're going to be the way that they've been the last few tours there.”
