Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has stated that Rishabh Pant and Steve Smith will come out as the top two run-getters in the upcoming Test series between India and Australia. The Indian team will face Australia in a five-match Border Gavaskar trophy, beginning from November 22. There have been a lot of talks going around as to who will come out as the top performers in the India vs Australia Test series.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

"Leading run scorer, I'm going to go - Steve Smith or Rishabh Pant. I think Smith, the fact that he's moved back down from opener to No.4 probably makes it feel like he's got more of a point to prove...that maybe he shouldn't have gone up to open in the first place and that No.4 is his spot and where he should have probably been the whole time and where he probably finished his career now," said Ponting on The ICC Review.


"With Rishabh back in the side and probably coming into bat in the middle order when the ball's probably lost a bit of its shine and a bit of its hardness and the form that he's in, I'll go for him as one of the leading run scorers as well," he added.


After making his comeback to the red ball format, Rishabh Pant has been in brilliant form as he has collected a total of 422 runs in five games with an average of 46.88 alongside one hundred and three half-centuries to his name. Pant has a brilliant average of 62.40 in Australia as he smashed 624 runs from 12 innings with the help of one hundred. 


Pant will look to continue the same momentum when he steps out on the field against Australia. 


India’s Squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R. Ashwin, R. Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.