Ponting has gloomy outlook for West Indies in Australia

THE WEST Indies white-ball team may take a while to recover from the disappointment of missing out on qualification to the ICC T20 World Cup but come next month, the red-ball unit will face a different challenge when they take on Australia in a two-Test series in Perth and Adelaide.

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is already uttering concerns about how competitive Kraigg Brathwaite and his men will be when they take on a fearsome Australia side in the longer format of the game.

On their last travels, the regional side lost 2-0 to Sri Lanka, and despite beating England 2-0 at home this year, Ponting believes the task of winning in Australia since 1997 will be insurmountable.

“They’re going to have to find a few lengths if they’re going to compete against the Aussies with the current group that the Australians have got. If you just line them up on paper, there’s no way you think that they could compete,” said Ponting in an interview prior to the start of the ICC World T20 Super 12’s in Australia.

SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT

Despite the white-ball team playing poorly, the Test side has shown signs of improving in the last couple of outings, including the most recent 2-0 Test series win against Bangladesh at home.

Despite that, Ponting believes the West Indies could very well find themselves in a similar position to the one they did back in 2015-2016 when they lost heavily in the first two Tests of the three-match series.

“Cricket’s a funny game, but they’re going to have to play out of their skins, I think, to make the first two Tests entertaining.”

Despite the dim prediction, Ponting still believes the one-time world-beaters could set aside their World Cup disappointment and show their true mettle down under.

“I didn’t need to see that to make me more worried about the first couple of Test matches,” Ponting said.

“But what’s interesting with that, they’ve actually found a way, mainly at home, I guess, in the last few years to be reasonably competitive on the Test front with Brathwaite and Holder. He’s done a really good job in Test cricket for them.”

The West Indies are set to take on the Prime Minister’s XI in a four-day tour match in Canberra starting November 22 before the start of the first Test in Perth starting November 29. The final day/night pink-ball Test will be played starting December 7 in Adelaide.