Ricky Ponting backs out-of-form Suryakumar Yadav, says he can win World Cup for India | Cricket News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Australia legend Ricky Ponting has come out in full support of out-of-form star India batter Suryakumar Yadav and feels that India should stick with him because he’s the sort of player who can win you a World Cup.
“His previous 12 or 18 months have been absolutely outstanding. And everyone around the world knows what Surya can do in white-ball cricket,” Ponting said on ‘The ICC Review‘.
The former Australian skipper went on to mark out Suryakumar’s propensity to win big games, and referred to his exceptional run in the T20 format in recent times.

“I feel they should stick with him because he’s the sort of player that can win you a World Cup. He might be a little bit inconsistent but he’s the sort of guy that in big moments can win you games. A bit like the late great Andrew Symonds did for Australia.
“So that’s definitely the way that I’d look at it for India. I wouldn’t be playing safe. I’d be going with match-winning players and I think he’s a match-winner.”

Talking about his recent ODI failures, Ponting said everyone goes through a lean patch in his career so what’s the big fuss about it.
Suryakumar has scored 172 ODI runs at an average of just 12.28 since his last ODI half-century in February 2022, but Ponting urged India to stick with the Mumbai batter despite his recent bleak run.
“Yeah, absolutely. Everyone in their career goes through something like that,” Ponting noted.
“I mean, I’m not sure I have seen it before where someone’s got three first-ball ducks in a row in an entire series. But look, we’ve all been there. You have your ups and downs as international players.”

Ponting also believed that the player could be best utilised at the number five spot.
“I think he was only batting at five, wasn’t he? I don’t think they want him much lower than that, especially when they’ve got Hardik (Pandya), (Ravindra) Jadeja and Axar (Patel), they’ve got plenty of batting,” Ponting said.
“I’m a big believer in giving your best batter as much time as you can in all formats of the game. Because if you keep them down the order, quite often you don’t get to use your best players and that’s the last thing you want. So I think the No.5 slot’s perfect for him and he’s just got to grow into that role there.”