WTC Final, IND vs AUS: Why Ricky Ponting believes Hardik Pandya should feature in crucial Test match

Batting legend Ricky Ponting feels that India should have picked Hardik Pandya in their squad for the 2021-23 ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia in London, saying his all-round abilities could have turned out to be the deciding factor in the one-off game. Pandya has not played a Test since 2018 and has opted to sit out of the five-day format due to ongoing fitness concerns. But, Ponting felt Pandya could have played in the winner-takes-all clash at The Oval from June 7-11 - primarily because he has bowled in almost every game in the just-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) for defending champion Gujarat Titans (GT), which he captains.

"...I thought about the other day for India in this game is how valuable someone like Hardik Pandya could be in a one-off Test match. He is on record saying that the Test match game is probably a little hard on his body. But, for a one-off game... he's been bowling every game through this IPL, and he's bowling quick," Ponting wrote for the ICC Review.

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The former Australia captain, also the head coach of Delhi Capitals (DC) in the IPL, said Pandya could have been the X-factor for the Indian team in the WTC Final beginning on June 7. "He [Pandya] could be that X-factor to pick in a one-off game. Come in and see what he can do with bat and ball. He could be the difference between the two teams," he sensed.

The 29-year-old Pandya has played in 11 Tests till now after making his debut in 2017, scoring 532 runs at an average of 31.29 with one hundred and four fifties. He has taken 17 wickets at an average of 31.05. In the 74 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) he has played so far, Pandya has scored 1584 runs at an average of 33.00 and taken 72 wickets. In the Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), he has scored 1271 runs from 87 matches and scalped 69 wickets. Pandya led GT to its maiden IPL triumph in 2022 but lost to Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in this season's final on Monday.

(With inputs from PTI)