Making Steve Smith the captain again could turn out to be an ‘absolute disaster’ for Australia, feels Ricky Ponting

Tim Paine took over the captain’s duty from Steve Smith after the highly dramatic Test match in 2018 at The Newlands, Cape Town. The stumper has honoured the captain’s hat quite satisfactorily since then. While the ‘sandpaper trio’ was suspended, Cricket Australia (CA), slammed David Warner with a lifelong ban from all leadership roles. But, they left a door open for Steve Smith as they asked him to wait for 24 months.

Warner and Smith came back to international cricket last year and are performing brilliantly. Along with them came the important question, whether Smith should be the successor for Paine when the latter pulls curtains on his career. Paine is 35 years old and being a wicketkeeper, it is speculated that he might retire after the 2021-22 Ashes.

Ricky Ponting, the former and the most successful Australian captain, has expressed that CA was always keen for the New South Welshmen to reclaim the captaincy and that is why they left the option open.

“If Cricket Australia had thought he would have never done it again, they would have put a black line through his name right from the start, but they’ve left that option open,” Ponting told news.com.au.

However, Punter feels that Smith’s reappointment is highly dependent on how the crowd will accept him. The former skipper said that the crowd’s reaction has changed but if the the public don’t like the return of Smith- the captain, it can turn out to be a disaster for Australian cricket.

“The public sentiment certainly has changed, and that’ll be the interesting thing to see,” Ponting said. “It’ll be if the Australian public is willing to allow him to come back and be captain again, because if Cricket Australia made that announcement that he’s going to be captain and it didn’t sit well with the public, then it’ll be an absolute disaster.”

I’m looking forward to coaching against him, Ponting on MS Dhoni

Ricky Ponting will be travelling to UAE now to join Delhi Capitals for the Indian Premier League. The Tasmanian lad is the coach for the Delhi franchise which is aiming to win their first IPL title this season. The right-hander said that he is looking forward to coaching his team against the newly retired cricketer, MS Dhoni and will try to restrict his batting credentials when Chennai Super Kings will face Delhi Capitals.

“When you travel around the world and you listen to cricket fans, they talk about Dhoni and his leadership and how calm he seems to be under pressure on the field,” Ponting said. “I’m looking forward to coaching against him now and making sure he doesn’t win any game off his own bat when Chennai play the Delhi Capitals,” he concluded.