Ricky Ponting wants Brian Lara to bat at four in Bushfire Bash

There has been a lot of hype over hosting the Bushfire Cricket Bash charity match. A number of renowned names, including the likes of Wasim Akram, Shane Watson will be playing. Previously, spin wizard Shane Warne was also set to weave magic in the T10 game, but has had to back out due to some other commitments. Adam Gilchrist has taken over the captaincy from the great.

The likes of Courtney Walsh and Sachin Tendulkar will also grace their presence in the T10 game. However, prior to the game, the organizers have had to scratch their heads, mostly due to the weather conditions. Previously, the match was scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 8 in Sydney. It’s the same day when two other games in Australia are also set to happen.

Now Sydney’s wet weather has prompted Cricket Australia to reschedule the contest on Sunday, February 9. The same was in order to provide the best possible pitch for the Big Bash League final. The venue of the game has also been changed from Sydney to the Junction Oval in Melbourne. On the very day, a tri-series match between Australia Women and England Women will also take place.

Bushfire line-ups to be decided in BBL Challenger

The reschedule of the game has meant that few of the stars won’t be available for the encounter. Along with Warne, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey and a number of female stars have backed out. Even as Tendulkar will be the coach of the Ponting XI, Tim Paine will coach the Gilchrist XI.

The playing XIs will be picked on-air during the innings break of the BBL Challenger between Melbourne Stars and Sydney Thunder by skippers Gilchrist and Ponting. In the meantime, Ponting desperately wants Brian Lara to be in his playing eleven for the epic clash in Melbourne.

Ponting also wants the West Indies southpaw to be batting at four with the former at three. Ricky uploaded a video where both can be seen, practising hard in the nets. The batters churned out some quality strokes to ooze class and aura.

He captioned the video and wrote, “If I’m batting three on Sunday, hopefully this guy is on my team and batting four @brianlara,”

Here is Ricky Ponting’s post

If I'm batting three on Sunday, hopefully this guy is on my team and batting four @brianlara pic.twitter.com/dsaXhJTLoU

— Ricky Ponting AO (@RickyPonting) February 6, 2020