India Or Australia? Ricky Ponting Picks Best Bowling Attack

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has said that he prefers Australia’s bowling attack over India’s. In a recent conversation with Cricket.com.au, Ponting heaped praise on Indian pacers as well but pointed out the fact that Indian spinners struggle in Australia, the reason why he picked Australia over India.

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“I am taking ours every day of the week. India’s is fantastic; (Jasprit) Bumrah and (Mohammed) Shami have been amazing for the last couple of years and then you put Umesh Yadav into the equation with Ishant Sharma, they’ve got some very, very good fast bowlers. And when you put (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja in there, their attack is very good,” he told Cricket.com.au

“But their spinners struggle more in Australia, Nathan Lyon has a much better record in Australia than the Indian spinners have. And I love the variation we have with Mitchell Starc in the line-up; that left-armer just provides a little bit of something different. And he’s bowling as well as I’ve ever seen him, so there are some even better signs for this Australian attack,” Ponting added.

Both the teams have a formidable pace attack with the senior pacers coming back in form. India always had pacers who could bowl fast but the addition of Jasprit Bumrah has changed the whole scenario. Indian pacers performed quite well in South Africa and followed up with another scintillating performance in England and Australia.

Ishant Sharma, who was earlier known for bowling long spells, has changed into a wicket-taking bowler and has been assisted well by Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. In the absence of Bumrah, the pacers have continued their performance and the Indian pace attack has also drawn comparisons with the West Indies’ pace attack which played in 90s.

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The Australian pace attack has also emerged as one of the greatest but Mitchell Starc’s form dipped in 2018/19. At the same time, Pat Cummins took the charge and Australia didn’t really miss Starc during Ashes 2019 as he played only one Test during the series.

The comeback of James Pattinson also added to the firepower. Peter Siddle also added his experience into the attack. Australia also have a ready-to-go back up in the form of Michael Nesser, who is yet to make his Test debut.

Though it isn’t the case with India. They do not have a ready-to-go back up. Yes, there is a Bhuvneshwar Kumar but he hasn’t played Test cricket for 23 months now.

India and Australia will continue the battle of supremacy when Virat Kohli and co land in Australia next year. India created history in 2018/19 by becoming first Asian team to defeat Australia in Australia.