NEWS
Follow UsFormer Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes that the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be the ideal preparation for the T20 World Cup adding that it wuld help the Australian players get back to the groove.
Pat Cummins, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson and Daniel Sams opted out of the tours of West Indies and Bangladesh. Australia lost both the T20I series by a 1-4 margin. "Those guys that haven't played for three or four months now, need to get back into the groove of playing high-quality cricket against the best players in the world," Ponting said on SEN radio.
"No doubt it's their best preparation to be in those exact conditions, playing in probably the strongest domestic T20 tournament in the world."
"All the best players in the world will be there … and I'm not just saying it because I want some of the Australian players there at the Delhi Capitals," he added.
A tri-series featuring Australia, West Indies and Afghanistan was scheduled to take place in India - where the T20 World Cup was initially supposed to be held. However, with the rise in Covid-19 cases in the country, the tournament was moved to the UAE, where the second half of the IPL will also take place. Cummins is unlikely to take part in the IPL, slated to be played between September 19 and October 15 as he is expecting his second child during the tournament.
"For second half of this season it's going to be really tough to get over there," Cummins said on a blog on his YouTube channel. "We'll see how it plays out but at this stage it might be a bit too hard, but with the World Cup straight after that, I'm hoping to be good to go for that."
Australia captain Aaron Finch, who underwent knee surgery is set to be available just in time for his team's first Super-12 match.