Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has made his predictions on the upcoming Ashes series, giving his views on the key players from Australia and England and his predicted series scoreline. This information has been received from the official website of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Ponting spoke at length about the Ashes with host Sanjana Ganesan in the latest episode of The ICC Review and the Australian legend believes the upcoming series will be much closer than many experts are predicting.
Read this also: Venkatesh Iyer’s big statement after his release from KKR, said – I still want to play there from my heart
Although Australia have held the Ashes since 2018 and have lost just four Test matches to England on home soil since the turn of the century, Ponting believes England will be competitive during the five-match Test series in Australia. Quoting the ICC’s official website, Ponting said that I don’t think there will be a draw, it will just be the way England plays.
He said that if the weather is fine in the Australian summer, then we know that the biggest concern in the last 15 years has been Sydney, where we have lost matches on many days.
He further said that the matches in Perth and Brisbane are usually great at this time of the year. So I don’t think any match will be a draw, rather I think the match will be really close. So I’m betting Australia will win 3-2. Ponting said that due to there being no draw, I think how close this match can be. And of course, I’m taking everything into account. England have won only four Test matches in Australia this century and I predict they will win two in this series. So that’s how close I think this fight could be.
Read this also: BCCI’s statement on Gill’s recovery: Will go to Guwahati, but suspense remains on the second test
Ponting believes that the opening pair of Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett will be important for England as he feels that if they get an early lead then the Australian bowlers can dominate the middle order of the visiting team. Ponting believes that England’s opening batsmen should attack Australia’s fast bowlers to gain an early lead in the innings.
Ponting said, “I have looked at the last few years when England have played really good Test cricket and that has been a result of some excellent, fast and positive starts from their opening batsmen.”