Ponting in T20 coaching set-up for Lanka series
SYDNEY: Cricket Australia (CA) on Sunday confirmed that former captain Ricky Ponting will work as an interim assistant coach with the country’s Twenty20 International (T20I) squad during the series against Sri Lanka in February.
The Aussie great will work alongside the already-appointed interim head coach Justin Langer and interim assistant coach Jason Gillespie during the three matches in Melbourne (February 17), Geelong (February 20) and Adelaide (February 22).
The trio have been brought in as the core of the existing Australia team set to be in India for a four-match Test assignment starting on February 23, according to a CA release.
Ponting said: “I always said when I retired that I wanted to get back involved and what better way to do it than alongside a couple of my best mates in cricket, Justin Langer and Jason Gillespie?”
“We have some incredible Twenty20 talent in this country and I can’t wait to work with JL,
Dizzy and those selected to have a real crack at doing special for Australia’s Twenty20 International ambitions.” Ponting scored more than 27,000 international runs during a decorated international career that included playing in three ICC Cricket World Cup-winning sides in 1999, 2003 and 2007, the last two as captain in unbeaten campaigns.
Ponting has extensive experience of the shortest form of the game too, captaining his country in the first ever T20I, against New Zealand in 2005, and then leading the side in the first two editions of the ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 and 2009.
His professional playing career concluded at the Antigua Hawksbills in the inaugural edition of the Caribbean Premier League in 2013.
He then went on to coach the Mumbai Indians to the Indian Premier League (IPL) title. Ponting has also been one of the faces and voices of Network Ten’s awardwinning coverage of the KFC Big Bash League (BBL).