Ricky Ponting backs Pat Cummins to replace Aaron Finch as Australia's next ODI captain

Two-time World Cup-winning skipper Ricky Ponting has backed Australia's Test captain Pat Cummins to replace Aaron Finch as the side's next ODI captain. Finch retired from ODIs during Australia's home series against New Zealand with less than a year to go before the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India.

"I think it’ll be Pat Cummins, to be honest," Ponting told host Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review.

"I know he doesn’t play all the ODIs for obvious reasons, because his workload in Test cricket has been, like all the fast bowlers, very high in the last few years.

"I know they are very conscious of making sure that they’ve got Cummins, (Josh) Hazlewood and (Mitchell) Starc 100 percent fit and healthy for the big Test series to come around.

"But look, I'd be surprised if it wasn’t Pat Cummins."

Steve Smith was stripped of the captaincy and banned from leading Australia for two years, while his deputy Warner was handed a lifelong leadership ban for their roles in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.

"I’m just basing this on what’s happened with Steve Smith he is now the Test vice-captain again, having been the captain and really at the center of the whole controversy in Cape Town," Ponting noted.

"He is now the Test vice-captain, which means



obviously that if Pat Cummins ever misses a Test, then Steve Smith is going to be the captain of Australia again in Test match cricket.

"So, if that’s the case, and all being even and reasonably fair, then I think it would be OK, as far as I’m concerned, for David Warner to have his name (in the ring).

"Not saying that they have to make him captain, but he should be able to be in the conversation."

Finch played 146 ODIs during his career, averaging 38.89 with the bat and his tally of 17 ODIs hundred is the third-most by an Australian player.

"I wasn’t surprised actually," Ponting added.

"I sort of personally felt that he was probably one game away or one failure away from getting dropped anyway. That’s how bad his last 12 months have been in one-day international cricket.

"I think it was the right time. I actually thought it was really noble, what he said as well, that stepping down when he did, it gives the next captain a reasonable time leading getting himself and his team ready for the next World Cup.

"I was afforded a similar thing as well when I took over the captaincy, and when I stood down and Michael Clarke took over, I was very aware of what was coming up. I wanted to give the next captain a very good run into the next big tournament that they played.”