India have better pacers in T20 than Shami: Ponting

Australian legend Ricky Ponting feels Mohammed Shamirsquos strength lies in the longest format and there are better quick bowlers in Indiarsquos T20 set up weighing in on his absence from the Asia Cup squadIndia have picked Bhuvneshwar Kumar Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh as the three specialist fast bowlers with allrounder Hardik Pandya being the fourth pacer in the 15member squadldquoHersquos Shami been a very very good bowler for India for a long time now If you look at his strengths his Test cricket is probably where he thrives the mostrdquo Ponting a twotime World Cupwinning captain said in the latest episode of The ICC ReviewAustralian legend Ricky PontingldquoI think there are better fast bowlers in Indian T20 cricket than Shami and theyrsquove only named three for the Asia Cup So if therersquos potentially four named in the squad he might be the fourth man inrdquoSpinheavy attackWith Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel nursing injuries many felt Shami might be included to share the newball duties during the Asia CupldquoI would think theyrsquoll probably only have the four quicks coming to Australia Theyrsquoll still want to bring a lot of spin here even though the wickets are probably not that conduciverdquo Ponting saidAlso Read In Pics Team India leave for Zimbabwe seriesThe Asia Cup will be held in Dubai and Sharjah from August 27 to September 11 and Ponting picked India as the favourites to win the tournamentldquoItrsquos always hard to go past India in any tournament not just an Asia Cup but I think every time we talk about the T20 World Cup which is coming up I think that India will be right in the thick of it thererdquo the 47yearold said ldquoTheir depth is definitely better than the other teams and I think India will win the Asia CuprdquoStarved of IndiaPak rivalryArchrivals India and Pakistan havenrsquot competed in a bilateral series for nearly a decade now ldquoTo be totally honest itrsquos one that wersquove been starved of havenrsquot wemdashlooking back the last 15 or 20 yearsrdquo Ponting saidldquoAs a cricket lover like I am and a cricket observer any time those sorts of battles come up itrsquos almost always nice to sit back and watch because everything just goes up a notch doesnrsquot itldquoWhen I think about rivalries Australia and England and Ashes cricket is the pinnacle Irsquove always thought of for our Test match game Irsquom sure India and Pakistanis will say the same about that and the actual rivalry would be the pinnacle of Test match cricket for those two countries as wellrdquoPonting believes India have the depth to prevail over Pakistan ldquoIrsquoll stick with India to win that Asia Cup August 28 clash against Pakistan Thatrsquos taking nothing away from Pakistan because they are an incredible cricket nation that continue to present outandout superstarsrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever