Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has reckoned that India have better depth than the other teams and are favourites to win the 2022 Asia Cup.
Ponting also said that that the Rohit Sharma-led Team India will beat arch-rivals Pakistan in their opening match of the tournament.
Commenting on the upcoming clash between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup, Ponting said: “I’ll stick with India to win that clash (August 28 match) against Pakistan.That’s taking nothing away from Pakistan because they are an incredible cricket nation that continue to present out-and-out superstar players,” Ponting said in the latest episode of The ICC Review.
The 47-year-old also mentioned that India are tough opponents to beat in any tournament. “It’s always hard to go past India in any tournament, not just an Asia Cup, but I think every time we talk about the T20 World Cup which is coming up, I think that India will be right in the thick of it there,” Ponting said.
“Their depth is definitely better than the other teams and I think India will win the Asia Cup,” he added.
Ponting further said that he has seen many of India’s T20I stars during his coaching time in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) and has kept an eye on how they are preparing ahead of the T20 World Cup.
Recently, the BCCI senior selection committee announced the squad for the Asia Cup which saw the exclusion of veteran pacer Mohammed Shami. Speaking on Shami, Ponting acknowledged that the shortest format is Shami’s weakest.
“He’s been a very, very good bowler for India for a long time now. If you look at his strengths, his Test cricket is probably where he thrives the most. I think there are better fast bowlers in Indian T20 cricket than Shami and they’ve only named three (for the Asia Cup). So if there’s potentially four named in the squad he might be the fourth man in,” he said.
“I would think they’ll probably only have the four quicks coming to Australia. They’ll still want to bring a lot of spin here even though the wickets are probably not that conducive,” Ponitng added.