Ponting names his World Cup smokies

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has named three bowlers as potential smokies for Australia's 15-man 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup squad.

The impressive domestic form of pace pair Jason Behrendorff and Gurinder Sandhu has them on Ponting's radar, while the triple World Cup winner says 20-year-old Aston Agar could be included as a specialist spinner.

"Jason Behrendorff from the Perth Scorchers has been a standout for me so far in the Big Bash and his domestic record is also good," Ponting told SEN's Summer Breakfast program.

"And Gurinder Sandhu is the other one. I think he's a terrific short form bowler.

"He bowls well at the death in T20 games which is probably an area that Australia haven't really ever excelled in the limited-overs game.

While the young duo wouldn't look out of place in Australian colours, Ponting concedes there are a number of fast bowlers ahead of them in World Cup queue.

"They're a couple of guys I think that will definitely be smokies.

"If you look at Johnson and Starc and Cummins and Hazlewood and these boys, they're probably the boys who have their names up in front of the selectors first and foremost, as they should."

Ponting says Agar, who made his Test debut at Trent Bridge last year, scoring a remarkable 98 batting at No.11 in world-record stand with Phillip Hughes, could provide Australia a dynamic spinning option.

 "I would actually throw Ashton Agar's name in there as a bit of a smokey.

"I haven't talked much about this before but I was just looking and thinking about what they might do with a spinner for the World Cup, and we know that Agar's a very handy lower batsman and a good fielder as well.

"I think he's someone who could slot into a World Cup one-day side really nicely."

Another dynamic player in the frame for the World Cup selection is Glenn Maxwell.

The Victorian has come under scrutiny in recent times following a below-par Calrton Mid ODI series against South Africa in November, and a run of low scores for the Melbourne Stars in BBL|04, highlighted by his bizarre dismissal in last night's one-run loss the Brisbane Heat.

But Ponting says Maxwell has the same raw ability and x-factor of a former teammate that helped win Australia a World Cup.

"I think expectation is the thing that's weighing him down a little bit at the moment," Ponting said of Maxwell's poor form of late.

"As I try to say to him, that's just down to the way he plays his cricket.

"He's got so much talent … the ability to do some unbelievably freakish things.

"He's got to find a way within himself to become a consistent cricketer for the Stars and Victoria and hopefully for Australia.

"The one thing we can't forget with some of these guys that are relatively new to international cricket is one, they haven't been in the spotlight for that long before and two, they haven't played as much cricket back-to-back and consecutively as some of these guys are doing right now.

"And someone like Glenn, he's the sort of guy who needs some time away and needs to have other vices in his life, rather than just sitting back and thinking about cricket 24/7.

"It's a tough adjustment period for some of these guys but we hope he (Maxwell) can come through the other end of it and make sure he's playing well leading into that World Cup, because he's the sort of player, like we had with someone like Andrew Symonds in 2003, that could win a World Cup for Australia."