Ricky Ponting feels that current Australia Test captain Pat Cummins will be made the new ODI captain of the side to take over from Aaron Finch.
Former captain Finch recently retired from ODI and with less than a year to go for the World Cup, Australia are in a hurry to find his replacement. Cummins is the frontrunner but David Warner is also in contention, however, the opener is currently serving a lifetime leadership ban as a result of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal.
Former Australia captain and legendary Ponting said he will be “surprised” if Cummins doesn’t become the next ODI captain.
“I think it’ll be Pat Cummins, to be honest,” Ponting said on The ICC Review. “I know he doesn’t play all the ODIs for obvious reasons, because his workload in Test cricket has been, like all the fast bowlers, very high in the last few years.
“I know they are very conscious of making sure that they’ve got Cummins, (Josh) Hazlewood and (Mitchell) Starc a 100 percent fit and healthy for the big Test series to come around. But look, I’ll be surprised if it wasn’t Pat Cummins.”
Steve Smith, who also lost captaincy after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, is now the Test vice-captain. Sighting Smith’s example, Ponting said that it’s time to overturn Warner’s ban.
“I’m just basing this on what’s happened with Steve Smith – he is now the Test vice-captain again, having been the captain and really at the centre of the whole controversy in Cape Town,” Ponting added. “He is now the Test vice-captain, which means obviously that if Pat Cummins ever misses a Test, then Steve Smith is going to be the captain of Australia again in Test match cricket.
“So, if that’s the case, and all being even and reasonably fair, then I think it would be OK, as far as I’m concerned, for David Warner to have his name (in the ring). Not saying that they have to make him captain, but he should be able to be in the conversation.”
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