Australia legend and Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting named his players to watch out from the other seven franchises ahead of the IPL 2021 edition. The IPL 14 will begin from April 9 onwards with Mumbai Indians (MI) taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Chennai.

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Delhi Capitals (DC) will face Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 10 in Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on the second match of the tournament.

Talking to cricket.com.au, Ricky Ponting revealed his pick of one player each from the other seven franchises as below:

Chennai Super Kings – Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina is back in the CSK fold for IPL 2021 after missing IPL 2020 in UAE due to personal reasons. Now that he is back, Ricky Ponting feels Raina’s experience will be of high importance for CSK in the middle order.

"Just his experience and the partnerships that him and (MS) Dhoni and Faf (du Plessis) and a lot of their senior players have created has been a reason the Chennai Super Kings have been one of the really powerful teams in IPL history,” Ponting said.

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“He looks really fit, he’s been doing a lot of batting … so him as an inclusion in the middle order will be huge for them, he’s one of India’s best fieldsmen as well and can bowl some part-time off-spin,” he added.

Kolkata Knight Riders - Varun Chakravarthy

Tamil Nadu’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy was the only bowler to take a fifer in IPL 2020 in UAE and impressed everyone so much that he earned his maiden India call-up for the Australia series and then also for the England series at home.

Ricky Ponting called him a real find from last year’s IPL 2020 edition.

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"He's a classic mystery spinner… he bowls an off-spinner, he bowls a googly, he bowls a leg-spinner and he bowls a carrom ball that he flicks out the front of his hand. So he's got the variations on his deliveries, but he's also got a lot of pace variations as well. So he’ll start in the mid-80s (kph) with his speed and he can push it up to 110kph with the quicker one,” Ponting said.

Mumbai Indians – Hardik Pandya

Ricky Ponting said that Hardik Pandya starting to bowl again is a huge plus for Mumbai Indians and him along with Kieron Pollard in the middle order were devastating for opposition bowlers in IPL 2020. He also called him a complete package.

"He’s just started bowling again. He had the whole IPL last year with no bowling, (due to injury), playing at predominantly as a six or seven batsman. He and Kieron Pollard out at the back end of the innings last year were just dynamic. Mumbai scored so heavily in their last five or six overs – it was ridiculous, and you couldn’t stop them,” Ponting said.

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"He's just an out-and-out power player now and he's probably 75 kilos ringing wet, but he can bowl 140kph and he's one of the best strikers of the cricket ball going around - he’s just a complete all-round package” Ponting exclaimed.

Punjab Kings – Nicholas Pooran

Punjab Kings’ West Indies import Nicholas Pooran showed his true value with the bat and in the field in IPL 2020 in UAE. He finished off innings in brutal fashion and was amazing in the field. Ponting praised him as a 360-degree player and someone who should bat in the top four for PBKS.

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"He's a very, very good player and someone that will be in huge demand for years to come in these T20 tournaments. When you’ve got (a player like Pooran) with that much power and you’ve got a game where you can score 360 degrees, that’s where these guys become worth their weight in gold.

If Pooran bats in the top four this year, I won't be surprised if we’re seeing him as one of the leading run-scorers in the tournament,” Ponting said.

Rajasthan Royals - Rahul Tewatia

Ricky Ponting was amazed by Rahul Tewatia’s rise in IPL ranks especially in the last season in UAE. He said that he didn’t get many opportunities for Delhi Capitals and has really blossomed into a great find for Rajasthan Royals.

“Rajasthan Royals played him from the first game of last season and he did some remarkable things. He’s now found himself picked in the Indian squad (for the T20s against England recently) as well. So it really is quite a remarkable rise for him - he was someone that was sitting on the bench in the IPL and 12 months later he’s playing for India,” Ponting said.

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“It’s his batting that he’s worked exceptionally hard on in the last couple of years. He’s worked on his backlift and tried to become much more of a power hitter, which you obviously need to be in those (middle-order) roles in T20 cricket and he’s developed beautifully,” he added.

Royal Challengers Bangalore - Devdutt Padikkal

Ricky Ponting picked Devdutt Padikkal as the player to watch from the RCB team, given his brilliant outing in his debut IPL season in 2020 in UAE, scoring over 400 runs.

"He’s a tall left-hander, a very stylish player, I think he's going to turn out to be a really good player, potentially an international player. The thing about Padikkal is, as with most left-handers if you give him any width with the fast bowlers he is very strong through the offside, but then if you get a little bit straight he’s got this pick-up shot,” Ponting said.

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"He just seems to have a bit of class about him. I know he scored a truckload of runs as well in domestic cricket, leading into this IPL. He might find it a little bit more difficult this year because teams have had a look at him last year, but it just seems like he's got enough class to probably overcome that and I'm sure have a good tournament,” he added.

Sunrisers Hyderabad - T. Natarajan

T Natarajan surprised everyone last year when he stepped up after Sunrisers Hyderabad lost the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in IPL 2020. From there he went onto have an excellent year making his international debut across formats for India against Australia and performing well against England as well.

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"He's one has come from nowhere really. He’s been around the domestic scene for a long time but he surprised everybody in last year’s IPL with his yorkers. Sunrisers were using him for one over (in the Powerplay), one in the middle overs and then two at the death, executing those yorkers perfectly. He was a real find, a real surprise packet. Natarajan’s going to be a big player for them this year again,” Ponting said.

(cricket.com.au inputs)