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Australia will get a perfect opportunity to defend its T20 World Cup title later this year when the ICC tournament comes to their home turf. Notably, Cricket Australia defeated New Zealand in the summit clash last year to lift its maiden T20 World Cup title. While Australia did remarkably well in the marquee tournament, team India was knocked out of the league stage after delivering back-to-back poor performances in their first two matches.
Virat Kohli-led side was beaten by arch-rival Pakistan and New Zealand in their Super 12 matches before bowing out of the tournament. In the process, team India also suffered their first ever World Cup defeat against their neighbours Pakistan as the latter clinched the match by 10 wickets.
However, two-world Cup-winning captain and batting legend Ricky Ponting believes Men in Blue will step into the ICC tournament as favourites, but the host will beat them in the final.
Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting has backed Rohit Sharma-led side and defending champions Australia to qualify for the final in T20 World Cup 2022 and believes defending champions will successfully defend their title. "I think India and Australia will be the two playing in the final and I will just have to say that Australia will beat them in the final," said Ponting.
Giving justification to his claims, Ponting said that Australia will enjoy its home condition. "They won their last World Cup at home and that made it not remarkable, but little bit sweeter for them," Ponting added. The former Australian skipper further applauded the defending champions for putting on a great show in the last T20 World Cup despite alien conditions.
"The fact that a lot of people, including me thought that they won't be able to use the conditions well. I hoped that UAE condition won't favor our players and they bow out of the tournament soon, but they found a way out and emerged victorious," Ponting added.
While concluding his prediction, Ricky Ponting also named England as a stronger contender and claimed that England has a great T20I setup and team can outplay any quality team in any given situation. "You just can't rule out England. Although, Jos Buttler is having a tough time as a skipper but his team has the ability to turn things around," the Delhi Capitals head coach said.