"He's as good as anyone.." Ricky Ponting predicts Shreyas Iyer to succeed at ICC Champions Trophy 2025

Ricky Ponting hailed Iyer’s ability to hit spinners.

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has heaped massive praise on Shreyas Iyer and predicted that the right-hander will do well at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 due to this excellent batsmanship against spin bowlers.

Iyer recently left a huge impression with his blazing half-century against England in the 1st ODI of the series in Nagpur, where he hammered the likes of Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse, and Adil Rashid.

While being excellent against spinners and length deliveries, Iyer also showed the improvement he’s made in his batting against short-pitched ball by tonking Archer for a couple of sixes.

India will play all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai, where Ponting reckons Iyer is going to be a key man for the Men In Blue.

“He’s got the game that will stand up to the white-ball formats, especially in that part of the world. On those wickets – the slower, lower wickets – he’s dynamic on those. We know how good a hitter of spin bowling he is and teams tend not to bowl a lot of spin at India, but at some stage it’s going to come. If Shreyas is out in the middle, then he’s as good as anyone. So I’m delighted to see him back in their team,” Ponting said of Iyer, on The ICC Review

Little bit surprised that he’s been out of India’s side: Ponting

After the Nagpur ODI, Iyer revealed that he was initially supposed to be on the bench with Yashasvi Jaiswal making his ODI debut but a late injury to Virat Kohli allowed him to feature in the side.

Ponting expressed surprise that Iyer is not a first-choice XI member in the ODI side despite having a stellar World Cup 2023 campaign where he scored 530 runs at an average of 66, including a century in the semi-final against New Zealand.

“I’ve been a little bit surprised that he’s been out of India’s side the last couple of years. He had a terrific World Cup back in India where he played beautifully in the middle-order and I actually felt then that he’d almost cemented that spot and made that his own,” Ponting added.

Ponting and Iyer will work together for Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 as head coach and captain of the side.

For more updates, follow Khel Now Cricket on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.