T20 World Cup 2021: Ricky Ponting backs Australia to win the tournament

Cricket Australia (CA) announced its squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup set to begin from October 17. Interestingly, the Men in Yellow are yet to win a T20 title but, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels the team is talented enough to win its maiden title.

Uncapped player Josh Inglis has earned his maiden call-up due to some brilliant performances in franchise T20 cricket leagues. Earlier Ponting had highly spoken about how the wicketkeeper-batter can be the X factor player in the team and how attacking stroke play with the bat can help Australia during the showpiece event.

The former Australia batter is ecstatic to see Inglis finally getting his due. “Awesome to see Inglis get his opportunity in the squad, he’s been scoring runs for fun, and if Ellis is called on it’s a great story for how far he’s come since moving to Tassie. Overall, it’s a brilliant squad of players that I think are capable of winning the World Cup,” Ponting tweeted.

Apart from Inglis, Australia’s senior players such as Pat Cummins, David Warner, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, and Marcus Stoinis are all back after missing the West Indies and Bangladesh tours.

Aaron Finch is also named in the squad, and he will captain Australia after recovering from a knee injury that saw him ruled out of the Bangladesh series.

Awesome to see Inglis get his opportunity in the squad, he's been scoring runs for fun and if Ellis is called on it's a great story for how far he's come since moving to Tassie. Overall it's a brilliant squad of players that I think are capable of winning the World Cup. https://t.co/jc0WeLf4Hx

— Ricky Ponting AO (@RickyPonting) August 19, 2021

Australia name four spinners in the squad for the T20 World Cup

Apart from Inglis’s inclusion, the other talking point of the squad was Australia naming four spinners in their team. Adam Zampa, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson, and Maxwell. With the pitches in the UAE offering more help for spinners, Australia have added depth in the spin department.

Recently Australia lost the series T20I series 1-4 against Bangladesh and, during the five matches, their batters struggled against spinners. With UAE pitches being slow and sluggish, Australia have addressed this concern for the T20 World Cup.

Squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa