As he prepares to be feted for an outstanding playing career, Ricky Ponting has his eyes firmly on a future role as Australia’s Twenty20 coach, a part of the move towards separate coaches for the game’s three formats that grows inevitable with each passing series.
While he has assisted the current all-format coach Darren Lehmann in the current triangular series, Ponting is eager to be head coach in the shortest form, having used much of his past five years since retirement immersing himself in T20, whether as coach of Mumbai Indians or commentating on the Big Bash League. He is set to mentor Delhi Daredevils in this year’s IPL, and it is Australia’s turn to host the World T20 in 2020 – the only ICC tournament the country has never won.
Discussions between Ponting and Cricket Australia’s team performance manager Pat Howard are ongoing as to how to make the role work after Lehmann’s contract expires following the 2019 World Cup and Ashes double in England, with the schedule and the national teams competing for priorities among the issues still being thrashed out. Ponting pointed to the way that Australia won a home Ashes series they had prepared rigorously for then fell away badly in the ODI series that followed – against a largely recast England ODI team – as a sign of things to come.
