‘He will be the prize wicket for Australia in WTC final’: Ricky Ponting lauds star Indian batter

After the end of the ongoing IPL 2023 edition, the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final will be held between India and Australia at The Oval, London on June 07. After missing out on winning the inaugural cycle, losing the final to New Zealand, Team India will be desperate to get their hands on the elusive trophy.

India’s WTC final-bound players will head to the United Kingdom soon after IPL 2023 where they will face Australia, the No. 1 ranked Test team. Ahead of the marquee finale, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting spoke at length at a WTC Final media scrum, on Friday (May 19) and revealed the Indian batter who will be the prize wicket for Australia.

‘I’m sure Virat Kohli will be prize wicket for Australia in WTC final’

“I caught up with Virat about a month ago when we played them in Bangalore,” said Ponting. “And I had a good chat to him about his batting and where he was at and his career. And he said to me then that he actually feels like he’s almost back to his absolute best.”

“You probably saw that last night (referring to Kohli’s 6th IPL ton during the RCB-SRH tie in IPL 2023 on Thursday evening), you know, he’s had a very good IPL and I’m sure he’ll be the prize wicket that all the Australians are looking forward to,” he further opined.

“Generally, we think about the battles between India’s spinners and Australia’s batters. But will that be negated by the wicket at The Oval? Normally the wickets that I’ve played on at The Oval have started as really good batting wickets, and actually have offered a little bit to the spinners as the game’s going on.”

“That’s what I’d like to see in this wicket – to have a really good contest on day four, day five, or maybe even day six, seeing how it’s going,” the Delhi Capitals (DC) coach added, who will be part of the commentary panel for the mega finale next month.