Ricky Ponting supported Cameron Bancroft
Melbourne: ICC Hall of Famer and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting feels batsman Cameron Bancroft is the frontrunner to top Australia’s Test batting list after David Warner and Usman Khawaja.
Earlier this year, Warner had announced that he was planning to end his illustrious Test career after the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) Test against Pakistan next year. As he prepares for the final phase of his career in white, many opening batsmen are eyeing his place in the Australian team.
While Marcus Harris and Matthew Renshaw have been used as reserve batsmen in the recent tours of India and England, Ponting believes Bancroft has risen to the top of the pecking order due to some sensational form domestically in Australia over the past few years. went.
The 31-year-old scored four centuries and more runs than any other player in Australia’s domestic Sheffield Shield competition during the summer of 2022/23 and is once again among the top run-scorers this season.
In 11 matches, Bancroft scored 945 runs at an average of 59.06, including four centuries and one half-century, and emerged as the top run-scorer.
In his first-class career, Bancroft has scored 9,389 runs in 261 innings at an average of 39.12 with 25 centuries and 33 fifties. His best score is 228*.
The batsman’s numbers are actually not very good among the Australian whites, as in 10 Test matches, he has scored 446 runs at an average of 26.23, including just three fifties in 18 innings. His best score is 82*.
While Bancroft has not represented Australia since 2019, Ponting is hopeful that the in-form right-handed batsman will be given another chance at the international level.
Ponting told Australian radio station SEN, “If you look at those three guys, I think it’s quite clear that Bancroft is the player who has put runs on the board and if they (the selectors) follow that path So I wouldn’t be surprised.” Quoting ICC on Thursday.
“If you turn the clock back about six months it might be a slightly different order of things than it is now. I think they probably had Harris come back a while ago. “I now feel (there are) some other reasons behind Cameron Bancroft getting his first success,” he added.
The great batsman also hopes that all-rounder Mitchell Marsh will be in Australia’s playing eleven after the Ashes series against England (250 runs with a century and a half in six innings) and the ICC Cricket World Cup in India (441 runs in 10 innings). Will be. two centuries and a fifty) and fellow all-rounder Cameron Green will have to bide his time and wait for his next chance.
“I think Cameron Green will just have to sit back and bide his time and wait for his chance to come back,” Ponting said.
He said, “He can score a lot of runs in Shield cricket and force his way back into the team. Labuschagne has been brilliant for Australia at No.3, it’s very much a specialist position.”
Australia’s series against Pakistan begins with the first Test in Perth on December 14, followed by matches in Melbourne and Sydney before a two-match series against the West Indies on home soil in January.
Australia are currently placed third in the ICC World Test Championship standings after suffering a defeat against arch-rivals England while retaining the Ashes earlier this year.
