IPL 2024 – Ricky Ponting to Abishek Porel – The moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he was a very special talent

“I have seen tremendous growth in Abishek Porel in this IPL,” Ponting said in Bengaluru ahead of the game against RCB. “In fact, it is clear that if we look back at the beginning of last season [with] With Rishabh’s accident, we needed to bring wicketkeepers into our team after the auction. We tried a lot of guys, a lot of guys who played, guys bigger than Porel, but the moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he was a very special talent.

“I think, what we’ve seen in the last half of the games especially, that talent is starting to really shine through. You’re starting to find out what IPL cricket is about. He’s had a few different roles. Our first game of the season, he came in as a No. 9 batsman, an Impact Player, and he did [32] coming out of ten balls there, and now we are seeing him open the batting and he is getting better and better in every game.

“I’ve got big raps for him. I think he’s a very good young player, obviously we’ll see him with the gloves tomorrow, with Rishabh out. And then we’ll see him in the gloves at work, when we finalize our team, batting order and so on, but I’ll be surprised if he’s gone at the top of the order again, because he played really well, and he’s someone who I think has a bright future.”

Porel has hit 31 fours so far this season, joint-most with DC and Pant, although he has scored only 267 runs to Pant’s 413. So far this IPL season, he has been playing matches only four in the tournament – all in 2023. – scored 33 runs at a strike rate of 106.45. He was among the players retained in DC going into this IPL.

‘Fraser-McGurk among the best powerplay batsmen in this IPL with Head and Abhishek’

Fraser-McGurk has been named by DC as his replacement just ahead of IPL 2024, after fast bowler Lungi Ngidi was dropped. Fraser-McGurk has since, in many ways, reset the T20 batting template in the powerplay, just like Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma when they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad this season. Fraser-McGurk has scored his 309 runs at 235.87 and an average of 44.14, with the help of four half-centuries. That strike rate is better than Abhishek’s 205.64 and Head’s 201.89.

“I don’t think Jake expected to be picked in the first place,” Ponting said of his absence from the T20 World Cup squad. “A few weeks ago he emerged as a replacement player, and the thing that was probably far from his mind was getting the opportunity to be in the World Cup squad. It was the way he was electrifying in the IPL. Some of the things he did – I think he made three points with 20 balls in this tournament, so he and Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma were the dominant batsmen throughout the tournament.

“I saw some quotes from him the day the team was announced or the day after – he wasn’t surprised he wasn’t in the team, he wasn’t disappointed not to be there. I’m sure he would have been there. He would have loved to be in it, but I think he would have been more surprised to be called by his name. He’s focused now, like the rest of us, he’s making sure that we’re ready to go tomorrow, it’s not about what happened yesterday, it’s about what we can do today to get better, and make sure we’re ready to play our best cricket tomorrow.”