Ponting excited about captaining Mumbai Indians

The former Australian skipper known for his aggressive leadership skills will now captain the Mumbai Indians for the sixth edition of the IPL. This decision was made after Harbhajan was not interested in leading the side.

His retirement from international cricket is a big bonus for the Mumbai Indians as he would be available for the entire IPL – 6. Ricky Ponting however made it clear that he wants to do the most talking around the team.

“I will take information from Anil Kumble and Coach John Wright on team selection as they are the senior members in the group. They have given me full support in the dressing room and probably I will do most of the talking around the team and that’s the way I would like to be”.

“John and Anil have been successful with India as Coach and as skipper cum player respectively. Put together we form a strong leadership group. There’s lot of skills and great experience around you if you include players like Sachin and Harbhajan” Ponting said.

“Captaining Mumbai Indians is exciting and playing alongside Sachin and Harbhajan, guys I have had great battle with over the years is really great”.

Ponting actually didn’t play the IPL 2 and IPL 3 for Knight Riders due to international commitments, but will be available for the entirety of IPL 6. He was also very excited to be back in IPL after Big Bash league matches for Tasmania.

“I am very excited to be back in IPL. “The way things have worked out – with my retirement from international cricket and finishing off the domestic season for Tasmania and playing well – they have given me the opportunity to be back here.

“The reason I did not come back for IPL 2 and 3 was because I had too much international cricket on at that time. And now that I don’t have international cricket, the opportunities for me to play in these domestic tournaments are really opening up.”

Ponting was very happy with the preparations for this season. “We have played two practice games and trained well in the last three days. The attitude and hunger in the Indian boys is good. We haven’t finalized the batting order and will like to have flexibility”.

He also said that he’s has good idea of making good teams successful. “I have got a really good idea of what makes good teams successful,” Ponting said. “And they are all the things I will be bringing to the table in Mumbai. To think that about some of the young local Indian talent I have come across in the last couple of days is great.

He also mentioned that though they haven’t won a single IPL trophy, they’re charged up for this year and hopefully this year would belong to them. “Mumbai Indians have a pretty proud tradition in IPL of finishing up the top and being in the semi-finals,” Ponting said. “We obviously haven’t won the tournament yet but hopefully this year is our year.”