Ponting backs Aussies for IPL to 'get their groove back'

Ricky Ponting says the rescheduled Indian Premier League would be ideal preparation for Australia's top T20 players ahead of the format's World Cup in October, with both tournaments to run back-to-back in the UAE.

Ponting, who will head to Dubai as coach of the Delhi Capitals for the tournament's resumption next month, said it was necessary for players to "get back into the groove" ahead of busy summer that will include the Vodafone Ashes series.

Australia's T20 side slumped to 4-1 series defeats against West Indies and Bangladesh in slow and low conditions on a winter tour missing a host of first-choice players, and the former captain said the results underlined the current lack of depth in Australian cricket.

Pat Cummins, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson and Daniel Sams all opted out of the winter tours, and none of that eight have played since the IPL was halted in Covid-ravaged India in May.

"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 said on SEN radio in conversation with Australia Test captain Tim Paine, who also endorsed the players going to the IPL.

"No doubt it's their best preparation to be in those exact conditions, playing in probably the strongest domestic T20 tournament in the world.

"All the best players in the world will be there … and I'm not just saying it because I want some of the Australian players there at the Delhi Capitals."

Mooted plans for a T20 tri-series with Afghanistan and West Indies that was to serve as crucial World Cup preparation are in limbo. Originally planned to be played in India before the T20 World Cup was moved away from their due to their coronavirus issues, the tri-series is now unlikely to go ahead.

The IPL will squeeze its remaining 31 games into 27 days between September 19 and October 15. Australia's men's domestic summer is due to begin with a Marsh One-Day Cup game on September 11, meaning any players heading to the IPL, and subsequent T20 World Cup will not feature at home before the Test summer begins against Afghanistan from November 27.

Smith missed the Caribbean and Bangladesh tours with a left elbow injury, and previously said he would prioritise the Ashes over the T20 World Cup.

Cummins, who skipped the tours to spend the time with his pregnant fiancée, is not expected to return to the IPL with his first child due in the middle of the rescheduled tournament.

"For second half of this season it's going to be really tough to get over there," Cummins said on a blog 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."

Australia captain Aaron Finch this week had surgery on his right knee to repair cartilage damage he suffered in the West Indies. While the surgery was a success, he faces a 10-week recovery period, which will leave him sidelined right up until Australia's opening match of the Super 12 stage of the World Cup.

Finch has previously said he believed a return to the IPL would be "hard to justify" for players that had skipped the winter tours citing the fatigue and toll of hotel quarantines and biosecure bubbles.

"I think they would find it hard to justify going back and playing that second half of the IPL. Just purely based on the workload coming up with a T20 World Cup and a huge home summer," Finch told SEN in June.

"It's really tough. It's a tough situation that everyone has been put in, but personally I would find it hard to do that knowing how difficult it is and how challenging it is mentally, and on your family as well. That's what I would think."

While the winter tours were touted as a golden opportunity for fringe players to force their way into the World Cup reckoning, Ponting lamented that the side "seemed like they got worse throughout that series".

Australia were left to rue a collapse in the opening T20 against the West Indies when they ceded a winning position, but ended it on an all-time low when they were bowled out for a paltry 62 against Bangladesh, their lowest-ever T20 International total.

"There's no doubt those conditions were really, really difficult (but) they were there for long enough, they would have done some training on wickets similar to what they played on," Ponting said.

"But the further the series went, 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. There's work to do there.

"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."

Riley Meredith, Dan Christian, Moises Henriques, Mitch Marsh, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye and Josh Philippe were all part of the side that toured the Caribbean and Bangladesh, and all hold IPL deals.

Marsh and Philippe had opted out of the first stage of the IPL tournament that was held in India.

Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn and Ben Cutting – none of whom are in Australia's plans or hold state contracts – are the other Aussies with IPL contracts.