India vs Australia ODIs: Ricky Ponting predicts winner, scoreline

Who will win the India-Australia ODI series? Here is former captain Ricky Ponting's prediction of the series result. The opening game is in Mumbai on January 14 and the final contest is on January 19, in Bengaluru

Team Newsable

Bengaluru, First Published Jan 13, 2020, 10:44 AM IST

Bengaluru: Former captain Ricky Ponting has made his prediction for the three-ODI series between India and Australia. The opening contest is in Mumbai tomorrow (January 14).

On Sunday (January 12), Ponting took questions from Twitter users. When he was asked about his prediction for the contests between the Virat Kohli-led side and Aaron Finch-captained team, Pointing backed his country’s outfit to claim the trophy.

Also read: Steve Waugh speaks on Indian team

“Australia will be full of confidence after an excellent World Cup (2019) and a great summer of Test cricket but India will be keen to redeem themselves from the last ODI series loss against Australia. Prediction: 2-1 Australia (sic),” Ponting tweeted in response to a Twitter user when asked about his prediction.

In the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings, India are second and Australia fourth. Both teams had reached the ICC World Cup 2019 semi-finals. While India lost to New Zealand, Australia lost to eventual champions and hosts England.

Also read: Steve Waugh's message to Indian fans

Ponting was also asked about Australia’s new Test star Marnus Labuschagne. The middle-order batsman is set to make his ODI debut in India after enjoying a great run of form in the five-day format.

“I think he'll do a great job for Australia in the middle order. He's a very good player of spin, a very good runner between the wickets, gun in the field and can bowl some handy leg spin so the overall package is very appealing,” Ponting said on Labuschagne.

Squads

India

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav.

Australia

Aaron Finch (captain), Alex Carey (vice-captain, wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (vice-captain), Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, David Warner, Adam Zampa.