I'll be surprised if Cummins doesn't become Australia's next ODI captain: Ponting

With Aaron Finch announcing his retirement from ODIs during Australia's home series against New Zealand, fans and experts have been using their analysis to predict the 35-year-old's successor. With less than a year to go for the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting also joined the bandwagon and shared his prediction on The ICC Review.

Speaking to host Sanjana Ganesan, he said, "I think it'll be Pat Cummins, to be honest."

"I know he doesn't play all the ODIs for obvious reasons, because his workload in Test cricket has been, like all the fast bowlers, very high in the last few years.

"I know they are very conscious of making sure that they've got Cummins, [Josh] Hazlewood and [Mitchell] Starc a 100 percent fit and healthy for the big Test series to come around.

"But look, I'll be surprised if it wasn't Pat Cummins", he further added.

During his career, Finch has represented Australia in 146 ODIs, averaging 38.89 with the bat. His 17 ODI hundreds is also the third-most by an Australian player. But Ponting feels Finch's poor form in 2022 was an indication that he could retire. "I wasn't surprised actually", he said.

"I sort of personally felt that he was probably one game away or one failure away from getting dropped anyway. That's how bad his last 12 months have been in one-day international cricket. I think it was the right time. I actually thought it was really noble, what he said as well, that stepping down when he did, it gives the next captain a reasonable time leading in to get themselves and his team ready for the next World Cup."

"I was afforded a similar thing as well when I took over the captaincy, and when I stood down and Michael Clarke took over, I was very aware of what was coming up. I wanted to give the next captain a very good run into the next big tournament that they played", he added.