Ricky Ponting, the legendary Australian cricketer, has made a startling remark on the upcoming five-match Test series between India and Australia. The upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2027 will determine India's ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2027) fate.
India is currently in a precarious situation in the WTC 2025-27 points table and may require a massive Border-Gavaskar Trophy series victory, potentially 5-0 or 4-1, to remain in contention for the final.
Before this series, India will travel to New Zealand for an all-format tour, including two Tests. India will need to win at least one Test there to stay alive in the WTC race.
Ricky Ponting admitted that Australia will have a tough task beating India in India in the next Test series but also feels that Australia & co. can take inspiration from New Zealand and South Africa winning Test series in India in recent years.
“Oh look, it's always a hard tour for Australia. It's always been a hard place for us to win. That's saying that a lot of other countries in the last few years have been able to go to India and beat India at home. New Zealand being a great example and South Africa obviously doing the same, Australia can take some comfort from that,” Ponting said on Sports Today.
Australia last won a Test series in India in 2004, when they swept the four-Test series 2-1 under Adam Gilchrist’s captaincy, as Ponting was injured.
Speaking about India’s struggles in Tests at home in recent times, Ponting feels that India needs to reconsider how they prepare the pitches for home Tests. The recent few pitches have been too spin-friendly, and opposition spinners have outbowled their Indian counterparts, and Indian batters have struggled as well.
“India probably, if they want to win more games at home, needs to be a bit more thoughtful with the way that they prepare their wickets there. I think they've gone way too far with preparing spinning wickets that their batters haven't been able to cope with, and opposition teams have been able to play better in India than they have,” Ponting added.
Ponting also added that Australia will make a few changes to their batting lineup for the India Test series. He also doesn’t expect Australia to take all their fast bowlers to India either for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“I think the Australian team will probably be slightly different come that time of year as well, when Australia is in India. I think some changes will be made to our batting line-up in particular. I can't see us taking all our fast bowlers to India either if the wickets look like they're going to be the way that they've been the last few tours there,” Ponting signed off.
India is placed fifth on the WTC 2027 table, with 51.52 percentage points from 5 wins and 4 losses from 11 Tests. On the other hand, Australia tops the table with 80 percentage points from 8 wins in 10 Tests.
