Ravi Ashwin has been one of the most successful spinners in IPL history: Ricky Ponting

With the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League less than three weeks away, all the eight IPL franchises have been gearing up their practice and training sessions. Recently, Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting opined on the new additions in the team including the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane, his first practice session and his strategy for this edition of the T20 league. 

Ashwin and Ponting faced each other for the first time on Tuesday ever since the latter had mentioned about having a “hard conversation” with the Indian off-spinner regarding his act of dismissing Jos Buttler in IPL 2019 through “mankading” 

In his latest interaction, the former Australian captain candidly spoke about two new additions to Delhi Capitals, Ashwin and Rahane. Showering praises on the duo, Ponting said that they will enrich the team with their class and experience. Also, he hailed Ashwin as one of the most successful spinners in the history of the T20 league. 

“Ashwin has been one of the most successful spinners in IPL history. Both of them are class players, and have been long-term Indian players. Rahane has led Rajasthan for a long time as well. They have all sorts of skill, class and experience which they’ll add to our squad.

“We all know how important experience is in T20 cricket, and we understand that. We’ve got a young captain in Shreyas, but to have those older, more experienced minds on the ground will help us a lot,” said Ponting as quoted by Hindustan Times. 

There’s no better place than to be in the Delhi Capitals camp: Ricky Ponting

Ponting joined the DC camp for training on September 1 (Tuesday) after completing his mandatory six-day quarantine period and testing negative for COVID-19. Speaking about his first net session the head coach stated that it’s wonderful to be back with Capitals. On asking about the strategy, Ponting said that the team will not be having many training sessions in the upcoming three weeks as he wants to make sure that each player remains fit physically and mentally for their first game.

“The attitude from the start has been amazing, and today was no exception. It was hot and quite draining for the players but coming off on the back of a good season last year, you would expect the mood to be upbeat – and I was delighted to see that and it felt awesome to be back in the team environment, and I think there’s no better place than to be in the Delhi Capitals camp at the moment,” said the 45-year-old. 

“We’ve got a smaller squad so I want to sort of manage our training sessions differently than we did last year. I’ve made it clear to the boys that we are not going to over-train in the first three weeks. I believe our preparation leading up to the first game is critical. I want to make sure that physically, technically and tactically the boys are peaking for the first game.” he added 

The legendary batsman further stated he wishes to capitalise on the momentum the team had gained after a successful stint last year. The Delhi Capitals had finished third in IPL 2020 as they got defeated by Chennai Super Kings in the Qualifier 2. Ponting stressed on instilling positives from the last season into the players as that will help in creating the posiotive attitude around the team again.