Ricky Ponting, the former captain of Australia has said that Jasprit Bumrah and Travis Head will be the highest wicket taker and run scorer respectively at the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Ponting, noted for his cricketing nous, believes that Bumrah’s outstanding pace and ability to provide vital breakthroughs will ensure he takes the most wickets in this competition. As far as batting is concerned, he expects Head’s aggressive approach and consistent display to make him score most runs.
These two players have shown themselves to be great performers in T20 cricket. Therefore, Ponting is expecting a lot from them as they play on the world stage during this tournament.
Bumrah had a sensational IPL season where he took 20 wickets in 13 games with an impressive economy rate of 6.48 despite it being such a high scoring tournament.
“The leading wicket-taker for me would be Jasprit Bumrah,” Ponting told The ICC Review
“I’ve just seen him do so many great things over a number of years now, and he’s just come off another brilliant IPL campaign”
“What he can do with new ball, swings his yorkers with new ball. However, if we look at his IPL end-of-season record you will see that it was below seven runs per over on average.
“He takes lots of wickets. He also bowls a lot of tough overs too. When you bowl those hard overs in T20 cricket then you get yourself into good positions to take wickets along the way so I am going with him,” said Ponting.
Head meanwhile was picked by ponting as top run-scorer for them team at the coming event.
“It would be Travis Head who I think might end up being our highest run-scorer.” Ponitng added
“I just think what he has done whether it’s been red-ball or white-ball in last couple of years has been to the highest standard. I think he’s playing fearless cricket at the moment.”
Head got injured early in the ICC World Cup last year. Despite this, Australia did not let him go and waited until he was fit.
The opener returned to action against New Zealand during the competition, hitting a scintillating century for that game. At the end of the World Cup, he had recorded two centuries, scored one fifties as well as an outstanding average of more than fifty while striking at 127.52 per hundred balls.
This season (2024) in IPL Head’s great form continued where he played as an opener for Sunrisers Hyderabad throughout their path to final. His total runs in 15 innings were 567 with a strike rate of 191.55 across this event.
Ponting anticipates that despite Head’s disappointing conclusion to his IPL campaign, his explosive batting will continue into these upcoming matches in Caribbean and USA.
“He was hot and cold through out the last IPL but when it’s been good its been very good and won games for his team,” mentioned Ponting.
“So Australia will be in the same situation. Thus, he isn’t going to set a benchmark in this tournament in terms of consistency. However, I think that once again he will end up among the best batsmen. And if ever he stays on the crease for some time as a representative of Australia, it means that more matches will be won,” noted Ponting.
The T20 World Cup 2024 will commence on June 1st in West Indies and USA.
