Ricky Ponting praises 'fantastic' Indian bowling attack

A 2-0 whitewash of the visiting Pakistan team ensured full 120 points to Tim Paine's Australia as they reduced the gap on India, who are yet to drop a point in the ICC Test Championship. Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting spoke on the emergence of India's pace battery and discussed the comparisons being made with the Australian bowling attack.

In the recent series victories, the ruthless Indian pacers under the leadership of Virat Kohli impressed everyone with their aggressive style of play. Ponting acknowledged the fact that India's bowling unit comprising of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma produced incredible performances, but he would pick the current crop of Australian pacers over the Indians on any given day.

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According to Ponting, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, James Pattinson, and Mitchell Starc would always remain his obvious choice for any game. He said:

“I am taking ours every day of the week... India’s is fantastic; (Jasprit) Bumrah and (Mohammed) Shami have been amazing for the last couple of years and then you put Umesh Yadav into the equation with Ishant Sharma, they’ve got some very, very good fast bowlers. And when you put (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja in there, their attack is very good.”

Jasprit Bumrah

Ponting, who is the coach of IPL franchise Delhi Capitals, knows a bit about the Indian conditions and the sub-continent spinners. However, he revealed his special liking towards Nathan Lyon and his success over the past few years. Ponting said:

“But their spinners struggle more in Australia, Nathan Lyon has a much better record in Australia than the Indian spinners have. And I love the variation we have with Mitchell Starc in the line-up; that left-armer just provides a little bit of something different. And he’s bowling as well as I’ve ever seen him, so there are some even better signs for this Australian attack.”

Nathan Lyon

In the recently concluded two-match Test series against Bangladesh at home, the Indian pacers ran through the visiting batsmen, claiming 31 wickets out of the possible 40.