Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting has backed the Australian players to take part in the second phase of IPL 2021, saying it would be an ideal preparation ahead of T20 World Cup.
UAE will host the remaining 31 matches of IPL 14, which got underway in April in India but was postponed on May 4 after the completion of 29 matches due to COVID-19 positive cases in bio-bubbles of multiple franchises.
While the remainder of IPL 2021 will be played from September 19 to October 15, the T20 World Cup will be held in UAE and Oman from October 17 to November 14.
"Those guys that haven't played for three or four months now, they need to get back into the groove of playing high-quality cricket against the best players in the world," Ponting was quoted by cricket.com.au as telling Australian Test captain Tim Paine in a conversation on SEN radio.
"No doubt it's their best preparation to be in those exact conditions, playing in probably the strongest domestic T20 tournament in the world," he added.
Speedster Pat Cummins, who skipped the West Indies and Bangladesh tours to spend the time with his pregnant fiance, is unlikely to feature in the rescheduled IPL.
"For second half of this season it's going to be really tough to get over there," Cummins recently said in a vlog on his YouTube channel.
"We'll see how it plays out but at this stage it might be a bit too hard, but with the World Cup straight after that, I'm hoping to be good to go for that."
Earlier, white-ball skipper Aaron Finch had said that participating in IPL would be "hard to justify" for players who had skipped the tours of West Indies and Bangladesh.
Players such as Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis and Daniel Sams had opted out of two tours citing personal reasons.
In the absence of first-choice players, Australia's T20 side suffered 1-4 series defeats at the hands of West Indies and Bangladesh and Ponting said the outcome shows the lack of depth in Australian cricket currently.
"... whether it was a lack of confidence or a lack of skill or a lack of game awareness in the conditions. Just the lack of know-how and skill in those conditions brought us undone again.
"It's been the Achilles heel for Australian cricket for as long as I can remember. It just goes to show the depth around Australian cricket right now is not where it needs to be.
"The T20 World Cup is not far away (but) with everyone fit and healthy in the UAE, I still think the Australian team can push really hard to win that title that's eluded us," Ponting said.
(With PTI inputs)
