Who Will Win World Cup 2023? Ricky Ponting Picks His Team

Former Australia skipper, Ricky Ponting feels that Australia will obtain a lot of belief and confidence from Glenn Maxwell’s astonishing innings against Afghanistan and that it could be a pivotal point in their quest for a sixth World Cup title.

Glenn Maxwell tackled severe cramps and a back spasm to smash an unbeaten 201* against Afghanistan on Tuesday that gave the qualification ticket to Australia for the semi-finals in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. It was a knock of sheer grit and immense quality from Glenn Maxwell. Ricky Ponting revealed after the match that this innings was the best that he can remember.

“I have been around a lot of games playing and calling and I have never seen anything like that, and I’ll be very surprised if I see anything like that ever again. It was the most remarkable thing you’ve probably ever seen in cricket,” Ponting exclaimed.

Ponting compared Maxwell’s innings to Ben Stokes’ ecstatic test innings at Headingly during the Ashes series in 2019. He said that Maxwell’s innings crossed Stokes’ in terms of importance and enormity.

“Ben Stokes’ Test innings to win it (third Ashes Test in 2019) at Headingley was something that I had never seen before and I think this one goes past that just for the sheer enormity of what it means for the Australian cricket team making the World Cup semi-finals,” said Ponting.

This victory was Australia’s sixth win in this World Cup on the trot. They lost the first two games but after that, picked themselves up and marched towards the semi-finals. They will face South Africa in the semi-finals in what would be a rematch of the infamous 1999 World Cup semi-finals which saw South Africa tie the match with Australia but agonizingly fail to qualify for the finals as they finished lower than Australia at the Super Six points table.

Ricky Ponting Feels Glenn Maxwell’s Innings Will Act As A Catalyst For Australia

Ricky Ponting feels that Maxwell’s heroics against Afghanistan might just act as the catalyst for Australia to continue their winning run. This inning from Maxwell has provided them with enough self-belief that they can go on and win their sixth World Cup title.

“All the great teams that I’ve played with and all the great teams that I’ve been around have always had that belief that they can win from anywhere, and literally anywhere, even World Cup campaigns that I played in,” Ponting said.

“We had games where we probably shouldn’t have won, but someone was there with that belief to put their hand up and win the game. And that’s what I talk about with Australia in World Cups. They’ve got this knack of being able to just win the big moments and today was a huge moment as they qualify for the World Cup semi-finals now and hopefully onwards and upwards for them,” he concluded

Australia will face Bangladesh in their last league match and that will probably be a dead rubber game as Bangladesh is already eliminated from the World Cup and Australia is already qualified. However, Australia will prefer to win the game to maintain their winning momentum going into the semi-finals.