ICC World Cup 2019: Spinners Will be The Defining Factors For Australia - Ricky Ponting

Australia Cricket Team have begun their campaign in England with a seven-wicket win over Windies in the warm-up game leading to the ICC World Cup 2019. They will play two more games before their campaign opener against Afghanistan on June 1. As Australia look to defend their title, their assistant coach Ricky Ponting has admitted that spin will play a crucial role in their title defence.

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Spinners will be key – Ponting

Meanwhile, English wickets have produced high-scoring encounters in recent times. The recent series between England and Pakistan saw 300+ scores in all the games.  As a result, the spinners will come into play to contain the runs in the middle overs. Recently, Rahul Dravid reiterated that teams will quality slow bowlers will have an advantage by their side.

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And now, Ricky Ponting echoed the same lines as of Dravid. Australia have Adam Zampa and Nathan Lyon as their specialist spinner while Glenn Maxwell can also prove to be a tricky customer. Zampa recently sounded confident of playing a key role alongside Nathan Lyon on flat England wickets.

“The thing that will define Australia’s success in the World Cup is, one, how well they bowl spin and, two, how well they play it,” Ponting told The Telegraph. “That’s been their Achilles’ heel the last 12 or 18 months. With [Adam] Zampa bowling well now, Nathan Lyon’s obviously in the squad and Glenn Maxwell’s done a good job with the ball whenever he’s played,” he added.

Furthermore, Ricky Ponting said that their middle order batters will also have to tackle spin better to win games. The two-time World Cup winning team skipper admitted that they have good players of spin who can tackle the best spinners in the business. Also, with David Warner there now and Steven Smith coming back in, the middle order looks a lot better against spin.

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In conclusion, Ricky Ponting said that Aaron Finch has got back his confidence with some late wins and runs after a lean patch for almost 12 months. Finch looked good in the practice game and has a good bunch of cricketers who are brimming with confidence to defend the title.

Australia plays Afghanistan first in the tournament openers on June 1.