• Home
  • Cricket News
  • No Kohli Or Starc Ricky Ponting Envisions These Ipl Top Performers To Excel In T20 World Cup

No Kohli Or Starc; Ricky Ponting Envisions These IPL Top Performers To Excel In T20 World Cup

Jasprit Bumrah, Travis Head picked as T20 WC favourites (X.com)Jasprit Bumrah, Travis Head picked as T20 WC favourites (X.com)


With the 2024 T20 World Cup just days away, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting picked Travis Head and Jasprit Bumrah as his favourite batter and bowler for the tournament respectively as he believes the IPL stars will go on to achieve big for their respective teams.

IPL 2024 season saw a lot of players emerge from the shadows and play a crucial role for their team.

Jasprit Bumrah was the only ray of hope in Mumbai Indians’ worst IPL campaign as he bagged 20 wickets in 13 games and maintained an exceptional economy of 6.48 which was lowest amongst the top 10 bowlers.

On the other hand, Travis Head was a key contributor to SRH’s successful campaign, and they finished as runners-up. While Head wasn’t necessarily consistent, he still scored 567 runs in 15 matches with a 40.50 average and 191.55 strike rate, including one century and four fifties.

That being said, Ricky Ponting picked these two IPL stars to perform big for India and Australia respectively at the T20 World Cup.

Ponting said he expects Jasprit Bumrah to emerge as the best bowler in the tournament as he has skills to swing and seam the new ball and the ability to control the flow of runs is an added advantage especially in the T20 format.

“My leading wicket-taker for the tournament will be Jasprit Bumrah. I just think an outstanding performer, contributor for a number of years now. He's just come off an outstanding IPL," Ponting said in ICC review video.

"What he can do with the new ball, he swings the new ball, he has the seam up. But at the end, his economy rate at the end of the IPL was less than seven runs an over."

Meanwhile, for Travis Head, Ponting feels that the opener will be an X factor for Australia. While he may not be as consistent, his numbers will remain at the top, and he will make his strong starts count.

“My prediction for the leading run-scorer will be Travis Head. I just think everything he's done, whether it be red-ball or white-ball in the last couple of years, has been of the highest quality. I think he's playing fearless cricket at the moment,” said the legendary batter," Ponting added.

"He might not be the most consistent on the way through this tournament, but he'll be right up there with the leading run scorers. As I've said, if he spends any amount of time at the wicket for Australia, he'll win more games than ever."

The 2024 T20 World Cup will commence on June 2, with the USA and West Indies being joint hosts.

Play: Test your knowledge with our Cricket Quiz

[From PTI Inputs]