New Delhi: Legendary Australia player Ricky Ponting has said that Indian cricket management has done the right thing by handing over the reigns to young Shubman Gill but they need to to give him a long rope to prove his credentials.
Ponting said that India is capable of handling the transition phase better than most of the countries as they have done it in the past and they will be able to sail through this also. Team India would be without stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as they retired from the longest format and pacer Mohammad Shami wouldn’t also be in the squad.
The five-match Test tour begins on June 20 with the opening Test match at Headingly in Leeds. Meanwhile during a discussion on The ICC Reviewthe former Australian captain said that lot of critics have believed that the BCCI should have gone with Bumrah instead of Gill as the skipper but his injury-prone nature was the reason behind the pacer not getting to captain the team.
‘I actually think it’s the right move. I know there’s a lot of other people out there, pundits out there saying they can’t understand why it wasn’t Bumrah and why they have gone to Shubman, but I think it’s pretty simple,’ Ponting told.
‘Bumrah’s injuries are holding him back a bit in the last couple of years and you don’t want that with a captain. You can’t have a captain coming in and missing games here and there, so I think it’s the right decision. Now that they’ve made it, it’s one they’ve got to stick with and give him (Gill) a good crack at it for a long period of time,’ he said.
Ponting also said it would be tough to replace players with experience but said India should be able to handle the transitional phase better than any other Test-playing side.
