NEW DELHI: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has praised the India national cricket team after their dominant victory within the T20 World Cup 2026, calling the present Indian facet one of many strongest T20 groups ever. India secured their third T20 World Cup title with a convincing 96-run win over the New Zealand nationwide cricket staff within the closing on the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

The win additionally made India the primary staff to efficiently defend the T20 World Cup.

Ponting praises India’s depth and consistency

Ponting highlighted India’s spectacular performances in current ICC tournaments and their robust file in white-ball cricket. In keeping with him, the staff’s mixture of expertise, expertise and depth makes them extraordinarily troublesome to beat.“It’s actually onerous to argue a degree towards that. Should you take a look at this, not simply the T20I staff however their white-ball file in ICC occasions over the past 5 or 6 years, it’s fairly exceptional,” Ponting stated on Worldwide Cricket Council’s The ICC Evaluate.“Lots of people most likely recognized earlier than this match began the depth and the energy that this present Indian staff had, and likewise the expertise that they’ve.“It is a very, very robust Indian white-ball staff, not only a T20 staff. Again-to-back World Cups, hats off to them.”

Expertise and IPL affect

The previous Australian captain believes the gamers’ expertise from each worldwide cricket and the Indian Premier League has helped them deal with strain conditions higher.“The one factor that’s most likely ignored with this present staff is the quantity of expertise and the quantity of cricket a number of these guys have performed, whether or not it’s worldwide cricket and even simply the IPL,” stated Ponting, who can also be head coach of Punjab Kings.“The IPL video games are each bit as huge as worldwide video games anyway, so this Indian staff got here in effectively primed with nice steadiness and a terrific squad.”

Studying from a uncommon defeat

India had suffered a defeat towards the South Africa nationwide cricket staff in the course of the Tremendous Eight stage, however Ponting felt the loss really helped the staff refocus.“You win 12 matches on the trot, there’s sure to be an off day. And I’m glad it’s come early. It would simply be the shake-up India wanted,” he stated. “They might have discovered from that have and received’t take issues with no consideration.”After that loss, India bounced again strongly with highly effective batting shows, scoring over 250 runs in three matches, together with the semifinal and the ultimate.“Possibly it simply allowed them to regroup, get collectively and speak concerning the issues which might be necessary to them as a staff,” Ponting added. “They solidified what they felt was their strongest taking part in XI and didn’t make many adjustments on the again finish of the match.”