Earlier this month, righthanded batter Aaron Finch decided to retire from the ODI format and retired from the 50-over game after playing a three-game run against Zimbabwe. Lately, Finch has been struggling in this particular format and so his decision shouldn’t be taken as a big surprise. His retirement means Australia is now looking for a new ODI captain and former skipper Ricky Ponting believes Pat Cummins could take the helm in the 50-over format.
“I think it will be Pat Cummins, to be honest. I know he doesn’t play all ODIs for obvious reasons because his workload in Test Cricket, like all fast bowlers, has been very high in recent years. Ponting said in the ICC Review.
“I know they are very aware of making sure Cummins, (Josh) Hazlewood and (Mitchell) Starc are 100 percent fit and healthy for the big test series. But look, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t Pat Cummins,” he added.
Steve Smith and David Warner received a leadership ban from Cricket Australia for their involvement in the Sandpaper Gate (ball manipulation scandal) against South Africa in the Cape Town Test in 2018.
“I’m just basing this on what happened to Steve Smith – he’s now the vice-captain of Test again, having been the captain and really being at the center of the whole Cape Town controversy,” Ponting said.
“He is now the Test vice-captain, which of course means that if Pat Cummins ever misses a Test, Steve Smith will again be Australia’s captain in Test match cricket. So if that’s the case, and all is equal and reasonable “honestly, then I think it would be OK with me for David Warner to have his name (in the ring). Not saying they should make him captain, but he should be able to get into the conversation,” he added up.
When asked about Finch’s decision to retire, Ponting said: “I wasn’t actually surprised. I personally felt like he was probably one match away or one failure away from being dropped anyway. his last 12 months in one-day international cricket have been bad.”
“I think it was the right time. I actually thought it was very noble, whatever he said, that stepping down when he did it gives the next captain a reasonable time to get himself and his team ready for the next World Cup.” , he added.
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Finch played 146 ODIs during his career, averaging 38.89 with the bat and his tally of 17 hundreds in ODIs is the third most by an Australian player.
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