Perth, Nov 21: Captain Rohit Sharma linking up with the Indian team in the second Test at Adelaide could be a “potential disruption” for the visitors, reckoned the legendary Ricky Ponting, who Thursday stood by his prediction of a 3-1 series victory for Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The marquee five-match Test series starts here on Friday. Rohit is on a paternity break and will miss the series-opener. Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is captaining the Indian team in his absence.“I just think there’s potential for more disruption through their campaign with Sharma coming back and whatever else. So I’ll stick with it (3-1 verdict in favour of Australia),” Ponting said on ICC Review.“(Marnus) Labuschagne and (Steve) Smith need to make runs for Australia. And their bowling attack obviously is as good as anyone’s in the world. So I’ll stick with my 3-1 Australia prediction.” The second Test, which is a day-nighter, will start on December 6.Ponting, the highest-ever run-getter for Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, believes the tourists are otherwise well-settled going into the series despite their recent home series defeat to New Zealand.“India will be pretty certain of what team they’re going to play (in Perth). They’ve known for a while that Rohit probably wasn’t going to be here,” Ponting said.“They’ve probably known for a while that Bumrah was going to be captain.
“So they’ve probably known what holes they’ve needed to fill. So they’ll be reasonably settled.” In the past four series between the two teams, India have won on all four occasions, including back-to-back away Test wins in 2018-19 and 2020-21.Going back to the 2020-21 series between the two teams, Ponting recalled how his 2-1 prediction in favour of Australia backfired after he discussed it with Sunil Gavaskar in the aftermath of India’s 36 all out in Adelaide, their lowest-ever Test total. (PTI)
