Cricket News: Australian great Ricky Ponting picks his favourites to win IPL 2023

The Delhi Capitals' head coach, Ricky Ponting believes that Rajasthan Royals have created a fantastic squad ahead of IPL 2023. Further, the former Australian captain has named Rajasthan to be among the favourites to win the trophy this year.

Incidentally, the Sanju Samson-led team advanced for the competition's finals in 2022.However, they were defeated by the debutants Gujarat Titans by a seven-wicket in the finals.

Yet, when it comes to the reigning champions, the former Australia captain praised Hardik Pandya. The 48-year-old noted that it is tough to forecast who will finish well at the time but he eventually ended up picking RR.

"It's a tough question.... as very rarely does a team dominate the IPL from the start to the finish. Obviously, Gujarat (Titans) last year were amazing, a brand new team and were able to win the tournament."

The former Australian batter further added saying:

"The other finalist last year, Rajasthan Royals, I think have got a really, really good squad. And we said that last year, immediately after the auction, we were pretty impressed with what they were able to do and put a good squad together."

"They've only built on that again this year. I think Rajasthan will be there, thereabouts. It's a hard game to judge and a hard game to understand who's going to win."

"Who stands up in the moment will generally win more often than not. But if I'm looking at the squads, Rajasthan has got a good squad as anybody,"

Ponting said in the latest edition of the ICC Review.

The former cricketer also spoke out about the tournament's new Impact Player rule. Commenting about it, Ponting noted that it is a fantastic innovation that would provide them with a lot of work once the matches begin.

"Let's wait and see. It's a nice innovation and it's definitely going to give a lot more work to the coaches once the game starts. I mean, normally as a coach, once the game is started, there's not much you can do to influence the outcome of the game. But with this. I think there are some significant ways that you can tactically influence the game,"

he added.

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