Ricky Ponting believes its quite hard to select a best IPL playing XI

Former Mumbai Indian coach Ricky Ponting has admitted that it is very difficult task to choose the best Indian Premier League, XI. There have been many players who have played in the Indian Premier league and have been consistent performers.

While there have been emphatic performances by the batsmen, the bowlers have also lived up to the expectations with exceptional spells. Keeping in mind there are only 11 slots in a team the World Cup winning skipper also feels that it is a daunting task to choose the playing XI for a match.

Ponting said that there are many such players in a franchise who does not get a game despite having notable domestic performances. He also believes that it is harder to get an IPL match than it is to feature for the country.

“It is harder to get game for an IPL team as it is for your country because of the sheer makeup and the numbers you have to have in each team. It can be very challenging with the young Indian players. You quite often have some young talented Indian players that can’t get a game either,” Ponting was quoted as saying by DNA.

“We had Unmukt Chand when I was at Mumbai. He was the U-19 captain and he was being spoken as the future Indian player. The whole time I was there, he got two or three games”

With 4 foreigners most of the times selected in the XI it becomes that much difficult for the Indian youngsters to find their spot among the other 7 players. There are so many players in a team that one bad performance can result in the ouster of a player. And due to the same, the 42-year-old stated that sometimes the young players feel that they are not valued if they don’t get a chance to showcase their talent.

“The international players know that there are only four slots whereas the Indians see there are seven slots and if they don’t get a game, they feel they are not being valued”

“In the end IPL is a tournament, it’s about tournament play and it’s just about bringing the right guys at the right time, leaving some out when conditions don’t suit”