Ricky Ponting predicts that Australia will beat India in T20 World Cup final

Ricky Ponting

Defending champions Australia will beat India in the finals of the T20 World Cup to lift the trophy, predicted two-time World Cup winning skipper Ricky Ponting. The 47-year-old has picked India and Australia as the finalists at the showpiece. The T20 World Cup is scheduled to be held in October and November later this year Down Under.

"I think India and Australia will be the two playing in the final and I will just have to say that Australia will beat them in the final," Ponting said during the latest episode of The ICC Review.

"The reigning champions have got home conditions and that was one thing that made Australia's win in the last World Cup, not remarkable but that little bit sweeter for them. "The fact that a lot of people, me included, thought when they went to UAE, the conditions that they were going to have to face on the back of the IPL, I thought the conditions might have been the thing that might not have allowed them to win it. But they found a way."

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England white-ball coach Matthew Mott has a superb record with Australia's women's team and Ponting feels the English team too will be in the reckoning at the showpiece event. "I actually think England are an outstanding white-ball team and they have an outstanding white-ball set-up," Ponting said. "I just think the three teams on paper that look to have most class and the most match-winners are India, Australia and England."

The former skipper, however, believes Pakistan's fate will depend on their skipper Babar Azam. "If Babar doesn't have a great tournament, I don't think they can win," Ponting said.

"I saw him up close and personal a couple of years ago out here in a Test series against Australia and I said it then, I thought the sky was the limit for this guy as far as Test match batting (was concerned) and, if anything, he's probably got better and better in the last couple of years. Their openers are very important and their new-ball bowlers are very important, but that role of the spin bowler in Australia might be a little bit more difficult with wickets that probably won't give them assistance."

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