‘Can comment on anything he wants’ - Adam Gilchrist defends Ricky Ponting following Gautam Gambhir’s controversial statement

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting recently raised concerns about Virat Kohli’s poor form in red-ball cricket. The 49-year-old highlighted that the star India batter has scored only three centuries in Test cricket in the last five years and added that no batter with such stats could feature in any team in international cricket. India head coach Gautam Gambhir did not like Ponting’s statement and asked him to focus on Australian cricket instead. 

Multiple former Australian cricketers including Adam Gilchrist liked what Gambhir said before flying to Down Under. Speaking on the same, the former keeper-batter mentioned Ponting, who is a two-time ODI World Cup-winning captain, has earned the right to comment on anything related to cricket and added that India’s upcoming series in Australia will be extremely spicy.

“Punter can comment on anything he wants. I think he has earned the right to comment on most aspects of cricket. I love this, this is going to get the popcorn out for the rest of the summer,” Gilchrist on the Club Prairie Fire podcast. 

We are paid to make an opinion: Matthew Hayden

Former cricketer Matthew Hayden joined the bandwagon and added that the pundits are paid to put forward their opinions about various aspects of the game. He also expects the contest between Australia and India to be extremely tight and added that both sets of teams have experienced players in the squad, that can make the difference in the end.

“We are paid to make an opinion, make a comment and make a call about the game we know and love,” Hayden said. “Both the Australian and Indian cricket team have not played a lot of long-form cricket, the reality is that is going to make the competition really close. When you think about Test cricket, all the names that GG and Punter are squabbling over, they have been masters of long-form cricket. 

The upcoming edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will begin on November 22 in Perth. Ahead of that, India have a few injury-related issues and there’s still no update on Rohit Sharma’s availability. However, the captain can fly to Australia in the coming days after becoming a father for the second time on November 15.